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From Cam King in Austin Texas:

You guys don't have to print this, since the article is old news, but my mom just sent me the Roky clipping out of the Alibi. I am an Albuquerque native and have been Roky's guitar player from 1980 on and off again until 2007. My band, The Explosives, has had the longest tenure of any band with Roky, including the Elevators.(See Austin City Limits, Jan 2008) You won't find much about us in print--we are not what you might call squeaky wheels, and we never have kissed up to the media, but we have been the band that kept Roky on his own musical path and inspired him to excel when others wanted to exploit him as a medium for their own agendas, or competed with him in their quest for personal dissipation. Roky has alway been(and likes to be) surrounded by the worshipping faithful. When we played with Roky, we treated him like a member of the band, not our godfather, and he responded with professionalism and mutual respect. He has always been susceptible to the flattering manipulations of those who claim to have his best interests at heart, and fortunately his brother Sumner and his son Jegar have been there at critical moments to see him through. But Roky doesn't like to take his medicines, and in the absence of proper medication and the social support required to keep him on it, he does not rise to the responsibilities and performance levels of a living legend. We no longer play with Roky because A) his management wanted a younger and hungrier band(not a problem for us), and B) he stopped taking his medication and became sullen and withdrawn, a condition we cannot tolerate. Although the current album is not the kind we would have made with(not "for")Roky, we are happy for the attention and hopefully the financial security that may come to Roky because of it.

Although few will ever know the real Roky Erickson story, the one that is out there is not bad. I hope Roky's voice and vision will continue to inspire young musicians and poets as it did The Who, Led Zeppelin, and so many other more famous rock legends.

Cam King

Austin, Texas