Farewell, my friend
We lost Paul Kopecky last week.
Paul was someone I didn’t know as well as I would have liked. When I sang with Dimension X, Paul and his brothers Joe and Bill were familiar faces in town–we often opened for them, and sometimes they’d open for us. A “good time to be had by all” was basically a guarantee.
As the band Kopecky, the brothers wrote a goodly number of albums between 1996 and 2007, when Paul’s health prevented them from playing.
Until that time, however, Kopecky could be found anywhere from BajaProg to Macaulliffes Pub. The show was fun–Bill Kopecky was the man chatting up the audience between numbers (Kopecky was a mystic/groovy/proggy 3 piece–guitar, bass, drums) and Joe would give them their dose of shred.
Paul was the quiet one.
Smiling, watching, and listening–Paul wouldn’t say much, but what he did say was worth listening to. Most of the time though, the drums spoke for him.
please visit the Kopecky site, to hear some of his life’s work.
Joe and Bill wrote a moving tribute…here is an excerpt:
“Paul was an exceptional drummer whose unique style shaped and helped define the KOPECKY sound. His drumming was powerful but precise, innovative but instinctive, and always, always tasteful. He played selflessly, crafting his parts to suit the song, not his ego. We were always suprised by his phenomenal talent, and we often marveled at how he could, with a minimum of practice, play extremely complicated tracks in just one or two takes in the recording studio. And in concert, Paul was always solid as bedrock and played his absolute best despite being frequently ill on stage.”
I was in the audience many times–that quote is solid truth, with one amazing point.
I never knew Paul was sick.
All that time–until he couldn’t play anymore–I never knew. I wonder how many others saw his smile, heard him play, and just assumed all was well with him. It was an amazing gift he gave to us–He never let his illness get in the way of his work.
He never let it color my perception of the music, or the performance. I just knew he was good.
Thank you, Paul.
You will be missed.
