Published Saturday, February 22, 2003
Herald Staff Writer
"Come home Ty!"
Ty Longley's Web site carried that message Friday, echoing the hopeful thoughts many in the area shared as they awaited word of the fate of the Sharon native and Brookfield High School graduate reported missing in a devastating nightclub fire in Rhode Island.
"I'm not talking in past tense," said Longley's friend, Max Schang of Sharon.
But Longley's mom, Mary Pat Frederickson of Valdosta, Ga., said she has come to a different conclusion.
"I'm sure he isn't with us anymore," she said.
Longley, 31, was a guitarist with Jack Russell's Great White, a new incarnation of the band behind songs such as "Save Your Love," "Once Bitten, Twice Shy" and "Rock Me."
The band's pyrotechnics have been blamed with starting the fire that quickly engulfed the club, killing dozens and injuring more than 150.
Longley's father, Pat, of Hartford, said Friday morning that his son did not have any identification on him, and he hoped that Longley was alive.
"We're sort of hoping he's in a hospital somewhere," said Pat Longley, who went to Rhode Island shortly afterward with Longley's sister, Audrey, of Sharon.
Pat Longley said he had called hospitals and talked to Russell several times in the search for his son.
Ms. Frederickson, a former employee of Brookfield Local School District, said she has called authorities since about 2 a.m. Friday and gotten no word on her son.
She constantly feared for the safety of her son. "Not on stage," she explained. "Only on airplanes, buses."
In a video that was broadcast on many news shows, Longley could be seen at the club in a black muscle shirt, looking in the direction of the flames that quickly spread from the band's pyrotechnic display.
"If I see it one more time on TV, I'm going to throw up," Ms. Frederickson said, adding that she saw the band play in Tampa two weeks ago and use the same kind of pyrotechnics used Thursday night.
Interviewed by CNN, Russell said he was pulled from the club by stage crew members, and did not see Longley once he got outside. On stage, Russell and Longley were several feet from each other.
Russell also said Longley's girlfriend is pregnant.
Longley's Web site -- www.tylongley.com -- posted a message from his girlfriend, Heidi: "I am having a hard time here so please bare with me. I know in my heart Ty is getting better in a hospital and he'll be home soon."
"Music was his life. He didn't do anything else. I'd watch TV and he'd be playing 24-7," said Mark Zicari, 26, who shared an apartment with Longley in Los Angeles. "I hope he's OK and he's just in the hospital somewhere."
"I hope he's OK," said Longley's friend, Alfred Clarke of Farrell.
Clarke said he last talked with Longley's dad about a week ago to hear the latest on the guitarist.
"Fantastic guy," Clarke, a drummer, said of Ty Longley. "In my 20 years of playing, he's one of the best guitarists I've ever heard. He'd give you the shirt off his back."
"In my opinion, (he is) an angel with wings," said Schang, who lived in the same Sharon apartment building with Longley until Longley moved out of town to pursue his career.
"He was happy doing what he was doing and that gives me some relief," Ms. Frederickson said.
Longley's Web site's fan forum filled with hopeful wishes for Longley, his girlfriend and family. Many told of meeting Longley at shows.
"I have been up all night praying for Ty and sending my thoughts to Heidi (his girlfriend), Jack and the band, and I am still holding onto any hopes that Ty is OK," posted Robbie of Lake in the Hills, Ill.
An East Stroudsburg, Pa., woman declared she was going to name her unborn child after Longley, and a Johnstown woman said her church prayer chain was praying for him.
Some people reported rumors that Longley had died, and the Webmaster posted a message asking fans to wait for official word.
Longley posted a journal entry Feb. 7 from his mother's house, and said he was enjoying the tour. He also talked of his father and some hometown friends catching him at a show in Detroit.
Longley, whose long, black, curly hair bounced from his head like springs, was hired to play in Great White in 2000. Great White was part of a fertile southern California hard rock scene in the late 1980s. Its best-known song, "Once Bitten, Twice Shy," was nominated for a Grammy Award for best hard-rock performance in 1990.
The Great White album "... Twice Shy" went double platinum, and the band toured on the high-profile Monsters of Rock tour with Kiss and Iron Maiden. The band's 1991 album "Hooked" went gold, but its days in the limelight were numbered by then.
In a 2000 interview, Longley said that playing in Great White was "a dream come true."
"I'm on stage with these guys who are heroes to me," he said.
Longley, whose local bands included Typhoon, Naked Alibi and Chains, started playing guitar at 13 and was so dedicated to the instrument that he would get up at 4 a.m. to practice before heading to school, and after-school practices could last to 2 a.m.
"This is my life," he said at age 19. "I'm trying to make my living at this."
He didn't always make a living from music -- taking day jobs as a telemarketer, marketing man for an entertainment company, busing tables at the Quaker Steak and Lube in Sharon, and teaching guitar -- but it took him around the world. He toured Europe with Great White, South Korea military bases with Upper Level, and Japan with Seduction.
Although he grew up with hard rock and heavy metal, he always listened to other types of music and tried to incorporate those styles into his playing. He played Prince and Madonna tunes with Scene of the Crime, dance music with Seduction and original pop-rock with Lisa St. Ann. His tour with Ms. St. Ann included a 1998 gig at the Hot Rod Cafe in Sharon.
He also wrote music and always harbored the desire to release his own recordings of technically demanding instrumental guitar music.
While some musicians buy into the lifestyle of sex and drugs associated with rock 'n' roll, Longley wasn't like that, Schang said.
"Ty always kept his head above water and always focused on being a better guitar player," Schang said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.