Since having formed a punk quartet (Chicago’s Verbӧten, featuring Dave Grohl’s cousin Tracey Bradford on vocals) as a precocious 10-year-old, multi-instrumentalist Jason Narducy has kept busy with other bands (most notably Verbow) and as an in-demand sideman with the likes of Bob Mould, Superchunk and Robert Pollard. He’s also releasing his first solo record under the Split Single moniker, Fragmented World (Inside Outside). Narducy will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with him.
Narducy: I went to high school with Ben Byer. We spent a lot of time together: road trips, rock concerts (we once splurged on seventh-row tickets for the Who in 1989), parties. In our late ’20s, struggling to pay rent while pursuing our artistic ambitions (he was an actor and writer), we decided to start a painting company together. We hired other young folks, usually musicians and actors whom were friends or acquaintances. Musicians were always better workers than actors. We would meet them in the morning at the job site, and Ben would lead them in stretches and calisthenics. It was unnecessary and he knew it. He just thought it was funny and absurd and did it for that reason.
When we were 32, Ben was diagnosed with ALS, also referred to as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. You can look it up or trust me when I tell you it is one of the worst human diseases. Ben decided he would make a documentary about his experiences living with and battling ALS. His movie, Indestructible, captures his struggles, his sense of humor and his spiritual search. It was accepted into the Montreal International Film Festival, so Ben would need to be in Canada for two weeks. At this point, the disease had progressed extensively throughout his body. He was in a wheelchair and had a hard time speaking, but he had a computer that allowed him to write by calibrating to his eye movements. He emailed me, asking if I would be his caretaker for those two weeks. The email read, “Are you available to wipe my ass and wash my balls in Montreal?” How could I say no?
I miss him every day. Watch Indestructible and you’ll understand why.
