First off, I have to say today was a moving and upsetting day. Burying Arthur amongst family and friends affected me in ways I wasn’t expecting. Now, anyone that knows me (and Diane lee has known me for 13 years and it was wonderful to speak to her the day before the funeral) knows that Arthur and me are like water and fire sometimes. But beneath it all, we loved each other. Some people don’t get my humor and some people don’t really know what they’re talking about (ok, the 40G car story has more teeth to it than knucklehead is aware of but I’ll stay out of his internet playground…and it’s stupid to talk about that now anyhoots) but all in all, Arthur was MANY MANY things and complicated beyond words. he DID care about people. Especially his family in memphis, as he was known to send money to help relatives out and stuff like that. Anyone who accuses me of being ‘negative’ when i relate things, hey i understand; but I’m a LOVE fan. A Arthur, johnny, Snoop, Don, Michael, John F., ect Fan. Knuckleheads will be knuckleheads, as Arthur so humorously put it one day; He knew the asskissers from the real deal.

Tomorrow, after my thoughts are more together, I want to relate the community and family vibe at the services today. Sorry to vent in the first paragraph but dang, the jealousy level on the Love board (by the minority, I must add) is off the chart. it’s actually funny and we all laugh about it when we hear about it. I remember in Amsterdam, in 1996, a guy confronted me (TRUE STORY…no TALL TALES! how’s that?) after a show at Rotown. He got in my face and said, “You embarrassed Arthur with your wanna-be rock antics on stage. Fuck you. You are not Love. Go the fuck back to America.”

We almost came to blows. Arthur pulled me aside and explained to me the deal; The guy LOVES Arthur and only came to see him. he could care less what the music sounded like. He wasn’t there to hear the tunes as much as he was there to see and experience his hero. And I can totally understand that. What our Dutch pal wasn’t aware of was that Arthur told me if I didn’t play the guitar that night like my life depended on it I was in deep shit. That was the deal EVERY NIGHT. Me, Chapple, daddyo, Rusty; we all had to GET OFF because Arthur wanted to be the best, when he was focused. (oops! A negative… I can hear the knucklehead banging on my amp!).

What the Dutch bloke didn’t understand was that he was off base in his assessment of Love’s music and Arthur in general. Now here’s the kicker; this guy was friends with one of Arthur;s good pals (his name is Peter and if he’s reading this he can back me up, although the band was right there so, no worries…) and the guy was obsessed with Arthur. Not Love, but Arthur. I love Arthur. Arthur, the Arthur I loved and laughed and faught with, I miss. This guy, as I said, was OBSSESSED with Arthur and blind to all things NOT Arthur (sound familiar…:-)

Well, we DIDN’T fight and time went on. unfortunately, Arthur went to Prison 2 weeks later and would spend more than 5 years there. The next time we saw Peter (in Amsterdam, 2002), he told us that the Knucklehead had killed his girlfriend, her best friend and himself. Good thing I didn’t let it go any further with the guy. BUT point is, no matter what Mike Randle does, there are people that really dislike me, send me really juvenile emails or post online notes to sort of ‘put me in my place.’ As Scot Keith referred to, people don’t know the HALF of it! it’s not about dirt, trust me. And I dunno, I guess I could give precise dates about everything. I don’t because I hope people trust me, but if knuckleheads want their hour, then hey, have it. You got the wrong guy, trust me. The bad guys are NOT in my direction. Gene always told me, Mike, don’t respond to that side of the track because they have a lot of time on their hands. Gene was right.

All that aside, I promise tomorrow to put my thoughts in place. But what I really want to say right now is the 5-string serenader is up there with his Mom and Jimi and Jim and Don and all the rockers. We love you, Arthur, and I promise, this is the LAST Diary where I address any of the ‘knuckleheads.’ God Bless and, to quote a funny message Arthur left on our message machine earlier this year, “Rusty, it’s Arthur Lee man. Hollaback at a n*gga.”

Mike Randle