I'm very sorry to read this. I saw Mr. Big at the Paradise club in Boston in 1989 when they were touring their debut album. My buddies and I were about 19, all aspiring musicians. General admission show and we were right up against the stage. I had never heard of Pat before that, but what a monster he was. We went of course to see Paul Gilbert and Billy Sheehan, but Pat was right up there with them. For a heavy metal band, he was much more than a heavy metal drummer. Very jazz influenced. It was like Tony Williams meets Alex Van Halen.

After the show we waited outside with a couple dozen other fans to see if we could meet the band and get autographs. The entire band was very gracious. They posed for pictures, had some nice words to say. I asked Pat about Addicted to That Rush. He said, "just doubles all over the place man. Practice your doubles." He asked me how long I had been playing and who were my favorite drummers (Bonham and Peart highlighted the list, as they did for every young rock drummer of the day). He said, "and Buddy Rich. It all starts with Buddy Rich." He was nice enough to take a picture with me before boarding the bus, which I still have somewhere. This was about 1:30 AM after playing a late night 2 hour gig, and still offering his time to a young fan. I'll never forget that.