I met John for the first time in the Summer of 2003. I’d known who he was for a couple of years because he was the head of marketing and communications at Roadway Corporation and the company I worked for hosted their website. But we also hosted John’s website for his zine, m-80, and everyone told me that if I wanted to know anything about music or art in the area that John was the guy to talk to.
When I finally got a hold of a copy of m-80, I knew I had to meet him. My main focus in life, at the time, was recording and distributing my own music, complete with the most intricate packaging I could come up with. Upon getting one of his m-80 issues in my hands and seeing what he did with it, I felt like we shared a lot of things in common.
And, I wasn’t wrong. I met him at Northside for a beer that summer and spent the next ten years being equally impressed, influenced, entertained and amazed at his passion, enthusiasm, drive and (most importantly) his generosity. I’d never met anyone in my life that was more interested in making the people around him successful than he was in placing himself in the spotlight, which he rightfully deserved.