05/20/2024
It’s a crazy world, all of our lives are intertwined with other beings without our knowledge, in every moment of every day.
Our paths crossing and recrossing until a day when you look up and realize you recognize the person across from you. And that person does the same, a moment later a conversation, that leads to the question, “how the hell do we know each other?”
These moments are revealing. Most of the time, the meeting can be immediately placed. Other times, truth and fiction intertwine as both parties slowly put all the pieces together.
Unlike a jigsaw puzzle, the straight edges are usually discovered and placed after all the other connecting pieces show the way.
I met Elias Gonzalez while bartending in college, among the pine trees of East Texas, in Nacogdoches. An encounter across a bar, one face in many.
The next time we would cross paths was in our hometown across another bar, Woody’s, a place I called home, a place filled with music, and musicians, it was the latter that brought us together again
Early days of stumbling and bumbling along, trying to find the right artists to bring crowds to the little bar tucked away in the back of a shopping center on the border of suburbia and the western expanses.
A little bar that provided me with brothers in arms, like minded, train wrecked, drunkards, passionate about music, a community.
Eli was up to his neck in it, working with various bands, often for no pay, maybe a meal, and some beers, often a place to crash, and a ride to the next gig.
Eli had a cavalier approach to life(the politest way I can think of to express this)
Earning himself the nickname of Tonto and later rebranded Chief along the way.
Eli, went on to spend his time on the road, a backbone to many bands working the circuit to get to that next level. Eli, plied is trade on the side stage or front of house. Never the star, but the guy the star turned to, knowing that he would make sure that they shined.
When Eli applied himself, he could wrangle just about anything, according to him, he is an adept at all and a master of very few.
Eli is my friend, a brother, a running buddy, we got into a lot of shenanigans along the way. For posterity, I’ll keep these to a minimum.
One I’d like to share involves an impromptu Sunday brunch invitation, a quick trip to Target, a lot of Sangria, I think that there was prime rib involved at some point. Ending as we always did at a venue, listening to music and sliding further into the throes of Beer & Bull$h!+! On this particular occasion, the result wasn’t immediate, but Eli met the girl , and that would bring him two wonderful kids, three technically and four total.
4 kids equaling the sum of their beautiful mothers, and Eli. Blessed with Jackson, and Kennedy, before Townes and Everly made their appearances.
I’d be lying if we didn’t wonder how the hell Eli was responsible for such incredible children. i joke, under all of Chiefs grins, and “come on man’s”, lies the heart & soul of a good man. Like the many men that came before him, he hid it under layers of Bu****it and Booze. But the man, he truly is, always rises to the top. And there aren’t many better.
Elias Gonzalez my brother, my friend.
Love you Chief! Rest easy!
This is just a brief remembrance,there are so many other stories to be shared, and I hope that each of you will choose to add on to this, so we may share it with his family.
