I’m honestly just shocked and numb that I’m writing these words.

I met Shaun when I was 19 years old. He was standing outside The Stone in San Francisco on Broadway waiting to get into a thrash show. He’d flown out just to be there. I can’t even remember which show it was anymore - it’s possible it was my old band Vio-Lence - but from that day on he became a constant in my life.  Always at the Chicago and Milwaukee shows, always down for the hang

For decades there wasn’t a week that went by without an email, text, or phone call from him. A new band I needed to hear. Industry gossip. Pictures of him proudly wearing Machine Head or Killers & Kings merch. Riffs he’d written. Songs he’d just finished. Photos of him on vacation with his son Maddux, who he absolutely adored.

The dude lived and fucking breathed metal, punk, hardcore and hard rock. Since our birthdays were only two weeks apart, we shared the same love for ’80s and ’90s thrash. 

My nickname for him was “Glasshole”, which was nickname Borivoj gave him that was so goddamned funny it stuck. Shaun never got bent out of shape about it - in fact, I think he secretly liked it!

Dude was a LIFER.  He never stopped creating. New songs. New bands. New records. No matter what life threw at him, he just making music.

He was hilarious. One of the biggest ball-busters I’ve ever known. And underneath all of that, one of the sweetest human beings I’ve ever had the privilege of calling my friend.

Like any friendship that lasts nearly 40 years, we had a wobble somewhere in the middle. I honestly can’t even remember what I was upset about anymore. Something involving some demos 12 years ago. Shaun was the one who reached out to smooth it out. He was the bigger man. I’m grateful he did, because in the last decade we grew closer than we’d ever been.

When you’re young, you think you have all the time in the world to repair relationships. The older you get, you realize time can take that opportunity away in the blink of an eye.

I found out from Dino that Shaun had suffered a stroke on the first day of our U.S. tour in Pittsburgh. The fact that four weeks later I’m sitting here writing a tribute to him makes me physically sick with grief.

You were truly one in a million.

I’m going to miss you terribly, brother.

My deepest condolences to Michelle, Maddux, his Repentance bandmates, his family, and the countless friends whose lives were made better by knowing him.

Love you forever, Shaun.
💔💔💔