Snicker At The Swine

article link: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/l … le19m.html
video link: http://www.king5.com/video/index.html?n … &shu=1 (Kay kay is interviewed)

rachealh wrote:

Sunday, July 19, 2009
   

hello everyone.
we usually have something exciting to share with you when we post these things but we must announce this with a sense of deep sorrow, confusion and mourning. 
yesterday as we pulled into perform on 90.3 KEXP's audioasis we learned the heart-wrenching news.
our dear friend, mentor, colleague, one hell of an astounding human being and loving father, Tom Pfaeffle passed away yesterday and is off to his great big gig in the sky.
while on a camping vacation with his family in eastern washington tom was trying to enter what he believed was his hotel room and unknowingly began to jostle the door handle when he was suddenly shot twice through the hotel door.  tom fought valiantly for his life with his wife val for two more hours until the EMS arrived.
we cannot go any further into the circumstances of his death or the on-going police investigation other than to let all of you know the shooter is a 57 year old male who's in police custody on a 2nd degree murder (for tom's death) and a 1st degree assault charge (for the stray bullet that nearly struck another hotel tenant).
Tom not only embodied the best of the human spirit's ability to be a selfless and unconditionally loving person, but he was a master of his craft.  he gave countless hours and unpaid time teaching young people at the seattle art institute's live sound and recording engineering programs and his roots run deep not just in the northwest music scene but worldwide.  in just the past 24 hours at the mere mention of his name, people we don't even know overhearing the news have broken down and relayed their very personal experiences with Tom.  he touched so many people and always felt as though he wasn't doing enough and wanted to push to improve things and be better at anything he put his mind to.
Tom fronted the money for the 'Kay Kay Live From the Pretty Parlor' DVD to be pressed as well as engineered the live recording and there is absolutely 0% cliche when we say we wouldn't be here without him.  Tom's mixing and mastering on our s/t full length was the reason the record got the acclaim it did.  the world is a lesser place without tom.  we truly lost a hero in every sense of the word.

Tom's hands were heavily involved with the following artists on either their records or live shows and on tour.

bb king
gatsbys american dream
nirvana
ub40
kay kay and his weathered underground
the black crowes
daphne loves derby
queensryche
candlebox
danger radio
aerosmith
iron maiden
kay kay and his weathered underground
alice cooper
heavy heavy low low
the wild orchid children
heart
warrant
marrakesh
lizzie huffman
bad company
paul rodgers
the hollowpoints

we are all still trying to make sense of such a senseless thing.  Tom leaves behind a beautiful family two of which won't fully understand why their daddy didn't come back from stepping outside for a brief moment.  please keep Tom in your thoughts prayers emails and stories.  each beautiful memory of Tom brings us to our knees, teaching his kids how to defrost the thanksgiving turkey with a hair dryer or teaching all of us how to make an aioli sauce and the proper way to bread oysters with cajun spices.  you left such a beautiful legacy hammer, we love you, you are with us always.


lastly, we don't use the fact that we're musicians to push any sort of agenda.  there is no soap box here, but we feel too complelled at this moment in time to not mention anything.
we live in a country who proclaims more than any other country in the world, the benefits of freedom, librety and the pursuit of happiness.  tom fully embraced those ideas and at the time of his death was doing something so distinctly american.  packing the family into his american made car to cruise on the american interstate to go vacationing in america's beautiful terrain.  the idea that his only fault was mistaking his hotel room for another, something i personally did three or four times while on tour in the past few weeks, sickens me.  who is anyone to say life isn't fair, but the reality of the situation is Tom would be holding his wife and children if someone who clearly had paranoia issues hadn't been allowed to own a killing device.
even more disheartening is knowing whole-heartedly that there is no falsehood in saying that if this was a different country this wouldn't have happened.  firearms and concealed weapons are illegal in all other industrialized countries and in the best country on the planet 80 gun deaths happen every day.  Tom Pfaeffle shouldn't be another fucking stupid statistic in those findings.

here are some links for more info or to help in anyway, please visit gunstories.org if you knew Tom in order to share your stories with him or your views on guns.

http://www.bradycenter.org/
http://www.bradycampaign.org/
http://www.gunstories.org/
http://www.millionmommarch.org/


thanks again for everyone's support through the good and the bad.
we are already planning some benefit shows very soon in order to benefit Tom's family and gun control advocacy groups and will let everyone know about that information as soon as it's available.

performing 4 songs yesterday on the radio that tom mixed and mastered was the best way for us to say farewell to our dear brother.  i know he was sitting in that live room smiling at all of us telling us it was going to be ok.
thank you tom pfaeffle for giving your life in such a way that you'll never be forgotten.  we love you so much.

kay kay and his weathered underground