October 19, 2001: 9/11 Memorial Concert in Red Bank

Bruce Springsteen with Maria Milito.  

On October 19, 2001, at the Count Basie Theater a fundraiser/concert was held for Monmouth County Families that lost members in the attacks on 9/11.

The Emcee was Kevin Smith and Q104.3 was the radio partner for the concert, which meant we broadcast from the event and I pulled double duty: line producing and shooting for Q1043.com.

Bon Jovi, Joan Jett, The Smithereens and Bruce Springsteen played.

Richie Sambora.  Photo by RD Mathers

Maria and the late Pat Dinuzzio.

Max Weinberg with Maria Milito.  Photo by RD Mathers

Maria Milito and Joan Jett.  Photo by RD Mathers

Kevin Smith and Maria Milito.  Photo by RD Mathers

During a break, I stepped outside to have a cigarette, when all of a sudden, I felt a tap on my shoulder and heard a familiar voice ask, “Hey man… can I borrow your lighter? I can’t find mine at the moment.”  I turned to see that it was Kevin Smith, and summoning all the “keep your shit together in front of the famous person” I could muster, I handed Kevin my lighter and we shared a smoke.  It turned out that we ended up on the same “go out to the alley to smoke” schedule and we had several short chats about life, growing up catholic (I mentioned that Dogma was in my top 5 films of all time) and falling in love.

At one point, I asked Kevin for advice in dealing with people who could negatively affect one’s career.  He told me, “… if you know you’re doing good things, if you know you’re going to create or make something you love and you encounter assholes who want to keep you down, they can’t help you… so fuck ‘em.  Go with what you know is right and push ahead.  Sure, you may get hit with the stick, but you get up and skate on.”  

It turns out I got “hit with the stick” a lot over the last 16 years, but whenever I am down on the proverbial ice of life, it’s Kevin’s words that are among the reflections I use to go on. 

Everything here was shot on 35mm film.

Kevin Smith.  Photo by RD Mathers