Gary Phillips: -good friend I will miss. Patti Smith sometimes called him her little tin soldier, no doubt in reference to his definitive kick-ass version of that song but more perhaps alluding to his innate boyish premise and tough (as tin) personae. tin in fact is quite a rare element and Gary was quite a rare kind of man. i liked him, i loved him and am a better person in every way for having known him. he once laughed when i suggested that GKB should open for the stones. i somehow knew it would soon happen and sure enough not a year later we shared one of Jagger's marlboros (which Gary had politely pilfered from their common backstage) secretly in his magical montclair lair long since burned.
-the last thing he said to me face to face before goodbye: "all there is is forgiveness."
i foresee your smile, Gary.
ron b. libby
