He was much shorter than I remembered, extremely small-boned and thin. What really surprised me, though, was how small he seemed. Maybe he did: I was one of the tallest guys in band. He said hello to everyone by name and claimed to remember me, which surprised me. He said sure, and minutes later we were all backstage talking to the guy we once knew as Steve. After the show, one of the friends was brave enough to ask Elliott if he would want to talk to any of his old acquaintances. I think Elliott later said – or maybe we imagined – that it was very strange to see all those familiar faces from Junior High in the audience, only aged 15 years. Elliott’s old friend Kevin Denbow was standing next to me, a few feet from the front of the stage enthusiastically singing every word to every song back at Elliott. All of us who knew him back when were beaming uncontrollably, probably looking like idiots to the man on stage. His singing was on, his guitar playing was on, he seemed to be in a good mood, sober, etc. As opposed to his later, reportedly, shambolic performances, that night he was amazing. We were all at Elliott’s show the night he played Trees in Dallas. I suppose I could have asked them, back in 1998 when I last spoke to them, what Elliott had been like years before. Our mutual friends from those days would probably laugh at that comparison. Strangely, if my memory of him at that time reminds me of anyone else, it would be Kurt Cobain. But he also didn’t seem to be faking anger or making a show of his seriousness. So from the beginning I knew Elliott was talented musically and apparently intelligent, perhaps in ways I didn’t understand. I was sometimes first chair he was almost always first chair. He played clarinet I played xylophone and snare drum. Pathetic joke: actually, I did play in one band with Elliott Smith: The Byrd Junior High Symphonic Band. I wasn’t in a band with Elliott Smith, but I did play in rock bands with a few guys who, reportedly, played in Elliott’s first band. I very briefly dated a girl he once dated. I wasn’t friends with Steven Paul Smith (who later changed his name to Elliott Smith). That made him almost as intimidating as a teacher. The fact that he was also a year older than me – an 8th grader -didn’t hurt his image, either. I liked and respected the guy, even though I didn’t know him that well. It’s possible he wasn’t mature for his age, but at the time I imagined he was. He was a quiet, older kid, with a demeanor that implied intelligence and maturity. He had blonde hair, and a characterful, acne-scarred face, even as a thirteen year old. He and I went to the same school in Duncanville, TX, a Dallas suburb.

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