I never thought I’d receive such personal news by simply logging into my email. But there it was on Yahoo: YSP! WSD! drummer Clifford dies after onstage collapse. I had to log in to Facebook for it to make sense. There, in the status updates of my friends, I felt the palpable loss of words most of them were feeling. I still don’t know if this is the proper forum to express my own grief, yet as the Clifford family states, he was just so passionate about what he did that it only makes sense to share. “Even though your child has chosen a path that you might not have wanted him to or know will be a hard one for them, if they need that in their life, then let them follow their passion and encourage them and support them as best you can. Devon was really satisfied with his music. It was all about him, his band and their fans.”

If it wasn’t enough to have just been friends with the man I was also lucky enough to jam with him, and open for his band at the Plaza. And everything you are reading about the man is true. He was a comic genius and just lived to play music. He was gentle and he was generous and that’s all.