ENUFF Z'NUFF's DONNIE VIE Comments On DEREK FRIGO's Passing

ENUFF Z'NUFF frontman Donnie Vie has posted an audio message the band's web site regarding the passing of ex-ENUFF Z'NUFF guitarist Derek Frigo. As previously reported, Frigo — who had been battling drug addiction for over a decade — died last Friday (May 28) of what is believed to have been a drug overdose. Listen to the six-minute 21-second message at this location (Real Audio). A partial transcript follows:

"[Derek] was a brother. More than a brother. Sometimes we fought, then we got along, just like brothers do. [We] played a lot of cool music together. I'm glad to say that right up until the end, we were still making music again — [I] just started working with him again. He really shined, he had really come a long way and he had gotten his life together immensely. People told me not to get too excited about it 'cause he had done it before, but I mean, had never seen him like that. Just to see him pick me up in his car and pull into a gas station and actually go in and pay for gas and pump the gas in his own car — I was floored by that. To see him do just ordinary other people do was just unusual to see Derek Frigo doing. Every day, everything he did, he made a celebration out of it. He was one unusual character. He's made a lot of friends and he's made a few enemies along the way, but nobody could deny that he was one hell of a guitar player — I think too good for his own good. He took his talents for granted and he didn't have to work very hard to do the things he did. He was one of those guitar players with a unique style that if you heard it, you'd know it was him. And that's not the easiest thing to achieve."