Aug 3, 2017 

I heard the news last night that Skip Prokop, drummer and sometimes vocalist for the band Lighthouse, had died. That’s two Canadian musical stalwarts gone in the past couple of months, Skip and Kenny Shields, Skip was 74 and Kenny just 69. 

It’s that time of life. My peers are disappearing. Last year it was many icons of my teens and now it’s people I have, at very least, shaken hands with and in Skip’s case, spent some time out on the road with. About a dozen years ago Stampeders and Lighthouse co-billed a tour of Ontario casinos. That gave us the chance to get to know the musicians we had, for so very long, viewed primarily as competition. 

That’s how it was in the 70’s; Stampeders, Lighthouse and April Wine all touring nationally for the great Montreal promoter Donald k Donald. 

Common to the three bands was Donald’s ‘man on the road’, Keith Brown, known to us at the time as ‘Reckless Eddy’. Keith was a man of many talents. As well as being in charge of counting the cash and dividing up the spoils, he could also fill in as opening act if circumstances required. He played guitar and sang and billed himself as, you guessed it, Reckless Eddy. 

Keith knew better than anyone what made these bands tick and had personal relationships with literally all the players. I retrospect, he must have also been a great diplomat because he was grilled endlessly, by all of us I’m sure, for inside dope on the competition. We wanted to know where we stood in the hierarchy of bands…who was making the most money…who was an asshole and who wasn’t …what did so-and-so’s rider demand…etc. He gave away just enough to shut us up but never enough to incriminate anyone, especially himself, then he would roll a fresh joint and pass it around. 

We were out on the road with him just after the April Wine tour got busted for marijuana in Kirkland Lake, which was no small deal back then, it could get you barred from entering the US (the big prize market) and put you under the suspicious eye of law enforcement coast to coast. We had all seen the news when it broke and our immediate reaction was, ‘Oh man, they’re screwed’, but no, no, no; Reckless informed us that as soon as the story broke ticket sales went through the roof and set new records for Donald K tours. Shit!! Why didn’t we think of that? 

But that was then and this is now. All these guys, whom we once battled to best, are now recognized as brothers in arms, to use the language of my Dad’s generation, and when one of us departs we all must take a few moments to remember and reflect, shed a tear and maybe stream and old track. 

So farewell Kenny, Goodbye Skip. 

I raise a glass to you both…and thank you for the music you’ve left for us.