As I write this, it’s 36 degrees outside and raining. There was a brief round of hail earlier. Looking back over the past few months, it’s hard for me to reconcile that it’s been over a year since the death of Press Tones frontman and legendary Scorgies’ bartender Scott Weichman. Scotty passed away on October 15th, 2019 after a series of debilitating health issues. This was, for many people who knew him, both a shock and not surprising. Ever since his return to Rochester in 2009, he underwent more than a few health scares directly related to lifestyle choices.

Scotty was always brutally honest about his faults… and journaled about them incessantly in a variety of diaries that he kept. Here’s a notebook entry he made shortly before he passed:

“in my suck ass life, I’ve enjoyed lust & love. Had a lot of fun. One of my rules was to be honest to doctors. Only lie to police and girlfriends.
Now I’m at the age where I don’t have to worry about girls anymore. On my behalf, I’ve always remained true and always remained faithful to music.
Sure, I’ve had a little television on the side, but music you are and and (will) always be my only love. I love you.”

And on another page, he wrote this:

“I never cared for too much, not that I didn’t love life, laughter or the company of a beautiful girl. Next in line was nature, feeding the birds, mostly the squirrels. Nature is so important, it is everything beautiful.
But foremost is what makes even nature smile… music. Without music we wilt and die. With music comes sex, friends and smiles; without it comes the END. The end brings darkness, death”

I truly hope that wherever Scotty is, that there will be musicians to jam with and listen to, friends to share good times with, girlfriends to love (and lie to) and a plenitude squirrels for him to feed.