R.I.P. Charles Pettigrew (1963 - 2001)
The long and winding road for me started when I was twelve. My neighborhood buddies the late Cliff Burton (Metalica) and Mike Borden (Faith No More) and I started our first rock band called Fly by Night. I remember a typo on our first gig poster changed our name to Fry by Night and we kept it because we thought it would give us private school kids street cred (okay, sesame street cred). Over the next few years I bounced around playing in several Hayward, California bands. We were a motley bunch of kids in striped T's and stove piped jeans. Capezio dancing shoes were all the rage. Looking back it was a super fertile breeding ground for soon to be rock stars. In addition to Cliff and Mike other members of our gang that found rockstar success are Eric Martin (Mr. Big), Troy Luccetta (Tesla), Paul Taylor (Winger), Keven Carlson (Aldo Nova) and on the fringe of our gang, Joe Satriani. Feeling like the only one from Hayward that wasn't having success I packed my bags and my bi-level haircut and took my rockstar dream 6 hours down the hiway to Hollywood. I remember my first night in my Hollywood Boulevard apartment my flatmate wound up having sex with our playmate of the year neighbor (OK she was like 50). I still thought Jesus what a welcome to LA. About two weeks after I bought a guitar from a guy on the street for 100$. That night around 3am Billy Preston (yeah THE Billy Preston) was poundin' on my door sayin' his drug addict nephew had stolen it from him and he wanted it back. The lapd came and made Billy give me my 100$ back. I was dyin' to get a pic with him but I was still in my tightie whities. I put an add in the recycler for a Echo and the Bunnymen type gtr. player. The wife of the gtr. player that answered the add was the VP of CBS Songs Publishing. I was like whats Publishing? She signed me as a writer I mostly got smashed w/ her everynight at Hollywood in-crowd restuarants and award shows and demo'd beatles songs for them durin' the day. Charles Kopplemen the Pres. of the Co. (yeah Martha Stewarts biz partner on "The Apprentice" knock off) took ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE to CBS hopin' to get them to record it w/ somebody. They signed me instead. I thought that was it. I was gonna be rich and famous (LOL). My brother still teases me that I bought a motorcycle and a rug with my big 25,000 first check. Anyways we partied like crazy, made a lousy record and it never got released. After that I met "Ready for the World" (yeah OH SHIELA) at a party @ Disney World and they told me I should see this Luther Campbell guy in Miami. I went to Miami and started mixing and producing records for a bunch of urban artists for 2 LIVE CREWS record company. Yeah I worked on ME SO HORNY. It was the first time I'd heard a 808 kik. We were blowin' up speakers everyday. We had no clue why. Check out the pic of me in every record modeling the Luke Skyywalker jacket wearing a bandana like Rico Suave. I was callin' my buddies back home sayin' I think this 2 live crew group is gonna be big. They got so big Luke forgot about my solo record and that was that. I went to LA and started workin' w/ The Dust Bros. (Beasties, Beck, Stones). We were making great music and they wanted me to record for Nicklebag but I was skeptical because we smoked so much pot that we only cut one song in about 6 months. I got frustrated and went to NYC w/ my one song demo on my last 500$. I called Josh Deutsch (Santogold, Cold War Kids, Gnarles Barkley, Owner of Downtown Records) @ Capitol and said to his assistant he won't remember me but he once wanted me to replace Lenny Kravitz in that group "The Body" a couple of years ago. He got on the phone and said someone just cancelled, come by NOW. I did, he said what do you want to do? I played him my one song demo and said I wanted to make an Al Green Record. He said he did too. Whats it gonna take to keep ya in NYC. I said $4000 (I thought I was asking for a million). He signed me to a development record deal (a entry level record deal in the hopes that you'll create something great). A few weeks later I met Charles Pettigrew (a great Marvin Gaye like soul singer) on a new York City subway train. We formed a duo (ala Sam and Dave) and wrote the Charles and Eddie Duophonic record over the next 6 weeks. After that we were on Jay Leno and Arsenio and played Pres. Bill Clintons Inaugural w/ Marky Mark Walberg and all kinds of stuff like that all over the world for the next 4 or 5 years. We had a 1 in 16 countries (would i lie to you), sold a couple million cds and made a flop follow-up that only sold around 500,000 I think (that was a flop after selling 2 million). I thought the flop was a better record. NOT. Oh yeah during my 15 minutes of fame I was the flava of the month songwriter for about 5 minutes. I got to write a song w/ Scott Cutler and Anne Previn (they wrote TORN for Natalie Imbruglia). Our song "Save our Love" sold 2.5 million copies for that girl group in the UK that never broke in the USA "Eternal". I also got to write a song for one of my fave Quinten Tarentino movie's "True Romance" (Wounded Bird). The coolest for me was that I got to work with Daddy-O of Stetsasonic and Feargal Sharkey, legendary singer from The Undertones. After that I went crazy cuz my rockstar super model girlfriend dumped me for the owner of the Boston Bruins son. I was like whats he got that I don't have? (teehee) I changed my name to Butchie Swaine and made a glam-punk record called "The Book of Revelations According to Butchie Swaine and the Unborn" w/ my best buddy Paul Gordon. We got a big record deal but the Pres. (Rod Stewarts manager) pillaged the Co. for millions I think, it was all over the papers and that was that. Paul told me a few years later that the gay Pres. of the record Co. did'nt like that I wore american flag hot pants, 12 inch platforms and a hot red halter top that said sexy on it for the cd cover but that I was'nt actually gay. I guess I was kinda fakin' the funk I just thought I was bein' Ziggy Stardust. It's still my fave record. Shortly after that Charles Pettigrew (Charles and Eddie) died of cancer. That totally shattered my secret dream of making another Charles and Eddie record which I guess was kind of a safety net for me. I was so depressed I got involved w/ Scientology for about a minute until I realized it was like High School (ya had to take these study courses) and I was like wait a second thats why I became a musician becuz I hated going to school. I started taking acting classes with Giovanni Ribisi, Jenna Elfman, Jeffrey Tambor, Doris Roberts and yes even Robert Blake (I studied with legendary acting coach Milton Katselas R.I.P..It was his guidance and incredible passion for the artist that sent me back to music with a serious fire under my ass. Thanks Milton.) I started hanging out w/ Kirsty Ally and her crew. Everybody in the group kept fighting and accusing eachother of being a 1.1 (a 1.1 according to Scientology is a person w/ really shady ethics and morals) So I quit Scientology and got dumped by all my Scientology friends for leaving. Then I moved to London to work w/ my buddy Jon Shorten (Joss Stone songwriter) and we wrote a bunch of songs. One that sold a million for that teenybopper group S Club 7. My girlfriend at the time got thrown out of the country so I went back to LA to find out she was leaving me for the celebrity group of friends that no longer wanted to be my friends. I took my toys and spent the next few years producing and writing in Europe mostly for my best buddy in Denmark Poul Bruun (former Pres and owner. of EMI DK). We've had a bunch of number ones after that. I think 6.
More importantly, I finally met the great love of my life Sissy Sainte-Marie. Right now we're just obsessed with our newest venture THE POLYAMOROUS AFFAIR (check out our myspace site). In 2009 we'll be spending some time on the road promoting our new record Bolshevik Disco. Somehow I've managed to sell 8 million records/cds/cassettes/8 tracks (ya know what I mean) as a writer, producer and singer. Basically, I just do some music everyday the same as I have since I was a 12 year old kid growing up in Hayward California.
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