Dear Ingrid,
Billy Yeager here. A Long time ago when I first met Jaco he invited me to come play with him at a house, it was somewhere on Broward Blvd, or perhaps Davie Blvd and we plugged into this tiny amplifier and jammed together for several hours. I actually recorded it with a boom box that was at the house and a tape I had. There were 2 women at a table in a dining rrom talking in the background, never said hello or anything, just wondering, was it you? Do you remember this? I don't know whos house it was but Jaco made himself at home. We played til 5 a.m. AND he proceeded to explain to me the recordings of garbage cans that he recorded of the garbage men throwing the cans, and tickling hgis kids in the bathtub that he recorded he was playing me master tapes and showing me this hidden things he mixed in the music, he was laughing talking about it, seemed he was having fun. I noticed the posting of my film here, A Perfect Song and my take on Jaco so0rt of loosely for my chararcter I played. I liked him , we got along, he had a profound effect on my life, I wanted to be able to do something in reference to him hope nobody minded. Yes I have this recording of him and me plugged into an amplifier together, very kool, Billy Yeager I also got a bounced check from Tipperary Pub, you guys lived behind there in Deerfield, Ron who owned the pub was a freind of mine

Listening To: talk talk

Hi Billy,

My apologies for having missed responding to your post before this.

What year was this? Was it '84, or '87 perhaps? I don't know who's house that might have been.

I would love, of course, to hear those recordings, if you are still in Florida, perhaps we can meet at one of the twins' gigs, Saturday the 13th at Alligator Alley on Commercial Blvd. will be a special event to honor Jaco and sign petitions for a park in his name. Feel free to email me.

Actually I just missed you, I was at the South Shore Sat Night/ I said hello to your sons, and I asked about you, and you walked by but I didn't want to bother you. They were great, must be uncomfortable everyone has a Jaco Story or whatever, all I can say is when I met him he came off arrogant, and I told him that and he liked me for telling it to him straight, I asked him if he would play on my first album, he said give me 5000,00! I said hey man I saw you at Newport with Wayne and I was across the street playing at the Castways and kinda told him what I thought and he said " I like yo0u mother ****er! Your gonna hang with me tonight, it was funny. He took me to this house as I mentioned and we played for a couple of hours , and then he stopped, He says... you gotta short? I said, A what? He said a short! I said what? He said, a car man a car! I said yeah, he goes well ... you don't have to appologise about it, but he winks at me you know, like,, I'm goofing on ya and I know it, so I play along and just do the same thing, he thought it was funny, so he gets these masters and starts playing these tapes, ( it was right after he took his cast off> remember??)
And he is telling me how he ran out in the front yard at 7:00 a.m. in the morning and was recording the garbage man dumping cans and he recorded it and mixed in the music, kinda rebellious, but laughing like ****, like " don't tell anybody I am putting this **** in my music" So then he plays something else and I hear this giggling, and he is tickling me and laughing and he goes 'guess what that is? I say I don't know, he says its my kids in the bathtub, I am ticking them and I recorded it and I put it in this song, can you hear it? And then he goes shhhhh!!!! Like, don't tell no one!
It was so funny! He said great things about me, and I have to say for a "jazz faker" ( Rock funk guitar player) it was really inspiring. At the end of the recording on the tape, ( a cassete) ,that we played for 2 hours on both sides it has dialog> us talking , I ask him, when are we going to record an album together and he says some stuff but the koolist thing that you would appreciate is he says " I got 3 kids too you know, and I gotta spend time with them"
( I thinK ?? 3 4 ? Dont know off the top of my head> then the tape ends) The thing I always felt bad about was my friend Stan who drove a cab at the Sears Town parking lot ran into Jaco several times, Stan would always ask Jaco refering to the time about me and him, He told Stan for me to come find him. ( Stan gave Jaco free rides where he needed to go) I went to find him at the back of a gas station with some clothes and things and I had bought an old bass, I wanted to help him take him home and thought we could make music together maybe get clean> it was the day before the incedent happened> I drove around all night but couldn't find him>I was so close> I knew if I could find him I could have pulled him in, with the passion of playing and music, so perhaps now you understand a little bit better about my taking some of the character of Jaco for my character Lloyd in my film " A Perfect Song" about the composer who is obsessed about composing the worlds perfect song. Please tell the twins how great they were, I don't know if I mentioned it or not, I know what it is like to have a father in the biz, my dad played country music and everyone I met I felt like second fiddle, they always mentioned him> These guys are phenominal they are into it for the purity and pure heart, anyone can see that, you did a good job, God Bless
Billy

Listening To: talk talk