Rick Froberg of Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes, Pitchfork, and more suddenly passed away last month at the age of 55. At the time, his longtime bandmate John Reis posted a short tribute on social media, and now he has opened up more about Rick’s death on Justin Pearson (The Locust, Deaf Club, Dead Cross, etc) and his Planet B partner Luke Henshaw’s Cult & Culture Podcast. He also mentioned that Hot Snakes had been working on new music before Rick passed.
“He definitely changed my world,” John said. “His biggest fans were his best friends. With his passing, it’s a loss of a best friend. I also lost my favorite singer in the world, I lost my favorite visual artist, I lost a lot.”
“We were working on music, and I just feel like he’s gonna come into the room–obviously I know he’s not,” he continued. “The tremendous loss and sadness is real, but there’s a part of it, it’s so fresh that I just feel his spirit is everywhere around me. I hear his voice, I see him in certain places that I associate with him.”
About the new music, John added, “Rick at 55, this is my opinion but it’s the right opinion, was doing his best work ever. His best art, his best music. He was firing on all cylinders. The stuff we were working on–you know, it’s up for people to decide whether they think it’s better or not–but in my opinion, it’s every bit if not better than the first Hot Snakes record. There’s not a lot of people you can say that about at 55.”
John also talked a lot about the histories of his various bands, and much more. Watch/listen to the full episode: