By Tom Owens
May 19 2003

I've known Chris for years. Longer than some of you have been alive probably. We partied together...got drunk together...were roomates for a time. Chris was as good as they come. He was a good guy. He was gay.

Something I didn't know for years. I remember the day I found out. I don't remember the month...but I know it was 1989, and it was a Saturday afternoon. I walked in on him with his boyfriend. he thought I'd be out much longer than I was.

No different I guess if you were fooling around with my wife...but Chris never wanted me to know. I was his best friend. I had no clue. Not till that day.

We didn't talk too much after that for a while. That's kind of a hard thing to swallow. You think you're all righteous being hedro and all...so you think he's doing something bad wrong.

Only problem was..at the time..I missed my best friend. We let it go. The both of us. I just told him,"Chris..don't go swapping spit in front of me buddy...I can't handle that and you know it."

He just gave me the same smile he always did, and said, "Sure Roadrash...whatever you say." He called me that from my days of bike racing.

In 1992, he moved to North Carolina to take a job with Nationsbank..a very good job for him. In 1994, I moved back to Atlanta. As things go, we lost touch. I would get the occasional email or phone call from him...and I would do the same...you know how it is.

But now he's gone...and all I can think of is the best buddy I had when I was a kid. I still see him in my mind, and it kills me. I have no idea why my moronic idea of what should be ever changed that.

That in mind...the song that always reminded me of him, I listened to today for the first time in years. It's by Rush...it's called "Nobody's Hero". I'll leave this with the first verse.

Nobody's Hero:

I knew he was different in his sexuality,
I went to his parties as the straight minority.
It never seemed to threaten my masculinity,
He only introduced me to a wider reality.

As the years went by,
We drifted apart.
When I heard that he was gone,
I felt a shadow cross my heart.

But he’s nobody’s hero.

Save the drowning child,
Cure the wasting disease.

Hero

Lands the crippled airplane,
Solves great mysteries.

Hero

Not the handsome actor,
That plays the hero’s role.

Hero

Not that battered girl,
That would love to sell her soul.

If anybody’s buying,
He’s nobody’s hero.

Godspeed Chris.
See you on the other side.
Love you man.

Tom