20 Years Gone: Remembering Widespread Panic's Michael Houser

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Mikey is still with us, embedded permanently in the music, endlessly pulsing in the hearts of his bandmates, and buried deep in the soul of the Home Team faithful. His guitar lead did linger, every solo he took during his too brief time with us, and it continues to linger, and ain’t that grand?

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Many people refer to Widespread as a “six-headed monster” but really it was just one head, one heart, one soul, one spine, a quartet of limbs, and a dark, warm blood running through it all. Houser was the central nervous system, synapses firing pulses of electricity with every thought, every movement, every sound… the six-headed monster would still be the same monster without one of its heads, but this monster is a different beast without Mikey.

Of course, there is one more family, the fans, those of us who “got it,” who knew the code and swore by its gospel. Whether we knew Michael Houser or not, we certainly felt like we did: we made room for him in our lives and in our hearts and now that space is a little bit emptier.

The highest compliment I feel I can give to a person is “I’m better to have known you.” Michael Houser: I am better to have known you.

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