A case of mistaken identity

It was October 2006 and A friend of mine from Italy was in town working on an album with the same folks who had produced Nirvana. So he took a break and came to stay with me for the holidays. I had just bought my first house in the San Fernando Valley and was very excited to have company. Umberto is the lead singer of a Rock Band 🎸called URock. It wasn’t until a few years ago that Umberto finally told me the fantastic story of how the band was named.

Fantastic because I had no idea I had played a huge part in its creation. I guess the band was having a hard time coming up with a name and at that time I had written a letter to Umberto stating how awesome their music is and how much I love the band. I think I also mentioned that he might want to learn English and make a few songs in English for goofy Americans who don’t listen to foreign music (and he did). To make a long story short I ended the letter with the phrase ‘U Rock!’ Umberto being pressed for time to come up with a band name for legal reasons had been so uplifted by my letter and how I ended it, he thought, that’s it! URock! That’s the name! We’ll, I guess the rest is history.

We we’re invited by The DJ to A Halloween party at the Standard Hotel on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood. Excited we got dressed in costume and made our way to the hotel. I remember dressing as a witch however I do not remember what Umberto was dressed as.

The music was good and the party was fun. At some point I looked across the room and saw someone familiar, Bud, my best friends neighbor. Granted I probably had one or two drinks by now, so I danced over to Bud and I said, “Hey Bud! What’s up?” But Bud did not really acknowledge that he knew me he just gave me a very odd look. So I reminded him of how he knew me and he proceeded to just give me a funny look. Not only that but the girl he was with started side eyeing me as well. So of course I got a little bit of an attitude and I said, “Oh, it’s like that? Oh for real? Alright I see how you are!”

Annoyed I went up to my DJ friend and asked him, “hey who is that guy over there?” I was not expecting the reply that I received. My friend looks up and into the crowd at whom I was referring, then he looks back at me and says, ”It’s Suge Knight.” I was in shock. Haha. I really thought it was my friend Bud.

A few minutes later I returned to Suge to apologize and let him know that I honestly had mistakened him for my friend Bud. Suge did not respond. I proceeded to tell him that I’m not a crazed fan, my Godfather was Marvin Gaye and my dad got Stevie Wonder started in the biz so he didn’t have to be so stiff toward me and then I danced off. I noticed after that Suge kept watching me while I was dancing.

At the end of the night while Umberto and I were walking back to the car, all of a sudden I noticed a white Range Rover slowing down as it approached us. The driver then rolled down the window and yelled something at us. At first I did not realize who was driving until I recognized the scowl on the face of the woman in the passenger seat. It was Suge Knight and his date.

Unfortunately I did not hear what he yelled at me so I just smiled and waved and yelled happy holidays, all the while thinking he could very well have yelled a death threat at me. I don’t think he did but I’m just saying… Umberto was thrilled to be around a Hollywood celebrity and I was just glad that the night went well and that we managed to stay out of trouble.

I think the funniest part of this entire story is that when I told my friend what happened she proceeded to tell me that a lot of people mistake Bud for Suge often. So Bud had actually decided to dress as Suge Knight that particular Halloween. So as I was mistaking Suge Knight for Bud, Bud was actually running around Hollywood pretending to be Suge Knight and I didn’t even know it. Madness! What are the chances?