The Curious Case of Kris Hadlock

Why and how people enter and exit my life has always been a mystery. If you're an almost famous, semi-public figure with a long and winding road through the infinite, intimate environs of rock n' roll, freaks, faeries and friends appear and disappear with cosmic regularity. Some are here for a moment, others hang around for a spell. Sometimes they hover for a lifetime. Kris Hadlock found me on Myspace in the spring of winter of 2008. Don't look for my Myspace page. It's gone. But Kris is not. He just doesn't go away that easily. Fascinated by his authentic talent for writing songs that hearken that loud and 'lude decade of decadence I documented as editor of RIP magazine and host of the Friend at Large segment on MTV's Headbanger's Ball, I was curious about this head case from upstate New York.

We spent some time in Los Angeles and a short time later, I flew east and visited his home studio on a snowy December day. That's when I got to know the dreamer Kris Hadlock. In the wake of that trip, I composed a bio titled, "The Curious Case of Kris Hadlock," inspired by the remarkable David Fincher film about a human freak who gets younger rather than older as the years of his life go by. Talk about nailing the metaphor on the head. Kris's passion and love for the music of his youth, especially that one significant superstar band from New Jersey, has kept him in a state of eternal youth. He's a local hero in Rochester, a teacher of riffs to the kids with the gifts, a twisted preacher who will not let go of the dream who believes that even though the clock is ticking, there is a still a shot that he and his stalwart Hadlock band mates, Richie Roccisano, Ron Lee Brock, and Robert Maslin will one day step on that arena rock stage somewhere, some time, and tear the roof off the joint.

Our friendship has evolved over the past couple years and recently, a series of events and conversations organically led to a concept for a rock video and my directorial debut. Hey, you gotta keep trying new things, right? "Superstar (Lost and Found) is a brutally honest, autobiographical song that could have worked back in the day but fits just as nice in the here and now. The images of the "real" Bon Jovi are culled from a VH1 TV demo I made in the summer of 2001 called, "Rock A Mile with Lonn Friend," that never made the cut. I shot the stuff myself and the footage has never been seen. These ghost like frames help put the song and the artist into perspective and will hopefully aid in connecting the clip to fans out there from the BJ loving masses. Not quite half way there, living on more dream than prayer, Kris Hadlock continues to rock and I'm proud to be playing a small part in that ongoing story.

- Lonn Friend, September 2011