T AND ME (AND KEVIN)

I’ve been writing short columns lately, on purpose. I’ve been having dreams where I wake with ideas and I just want to blurt them.

So here’s one.

I have this lifelong friend. I was just off the phone with him. He was a football hero in high school and I was a bit of a geek. We were, I guess you could call it, strange bedfellow friends. Totally separate worlds, but totally sympatico at the same time.

I love him so much. He went on to play college football — quite successfully. Our bond was over the arts. We were young writers. And we were hungry.

Today, some thirty years later as I write, sing, and do my other stuff, he is a filmmaker. And we talk a lot. He is actually working with Kevin Costner on Yellowstone and his other related projects which amazes me. I am all about the Costner renaissance that’s been underway. On the phone, T told me that Kevin, like him, was born in Compton. Of all places! He also told me of the kindness that he delivers toward all on-set, which made me happy to hear.

The main point of this column is not Kevin Costner, though. It is friendship.

I do know my buddy T though, and, again, I love him. How blessed I feel at 53 to have a friend since high school! And a dear one at that. And one I legitimately respect. This has not happened a lot in my life. There are not many people in my life who operate at my level artistically. It is an entirely strange existence that not many understand. It might sound arrogant on the surface, but it really is not. It’s simply fact. It can be brutal.

And T understands.

The thing is, when you have someone in your life who is sympatico, it makes your life a lot easier and calmer. This is what I get from T. A friend, a colleague, a fellow thinker. A beautiful human.

And he’s doing really cool shit. Kevin Costner!

Also, the more beautiful humans in our lives, the better. Raise a glass. And watch Yellowstone!