This band is not four members. This band is the four of us plus the people who have put up with us, made us look good and sound good over the years, and the first person who became part of that family was Scott Simons.

We met Scott on the Love and Rockets tour, our first national tour in 1996, and we took him and we kept him. The only time he couldn’t work with us was if it was one of the Love and Rockets/Bauhaus/Peter Murphy camp.

Scott has lived with us, given speeches at our weddings, and made us laugh over the stupidest shit – every time when things are good, they’re fun, and when they’re bad, they’re funny. And Scott is one of the first people that made sure it was funny.

He is the best lighting guy we’ve ever known. And he’s one of our people. We’ve never lost a Dandy. We’ve never lost a Dandy, and this is the first time we’ve had to say goodbye to one of our close, close inner circle family. And we are all beside our side ourselves. No one could ever replace him, and yet we have to go on a tour without him. He’s the funniest, most talented person and the good thing is this: he ate all the burritos, and the steaks, and the fucking escargot and the margaritas and the beers and the Bordeaux. He saw all the sunsets in the exotic places, and all the clubs, and all the fans, and the best lights. That man packed 100 years of life into his 62 years.

The only grief to be had is for the people who are gonna miss him because he deserves to move to the other side. There’s nothing wrong with Scott leaving except that we will miss him.

The Dandy Warhols.
Portland, Oregon.