I’ve met presidents, movie stars, celebrity athletes, religious leaders and billionaires. But not one of them where are great as Clayton R Jones, the man that loved my mother and raised me. There is a saying that it takes a good man to raise a child, and a great man to raise someone else’s child! Casey Jones as most of us called him was a really great man!

I’ve often described Casey like this: if the dictionary had a photo accompanying the word ‘Christian’ it would be his. You can also place his photo next to the word ‘integrity’, too! In the 39 years I’ve known Casey he never ever lied, always treated everyone with respect, and cared openly for those around him.

Trust me, I tested him for years! From about 14 until I was 30ish I wasn’t what you would call the most considerate of my family. Oh, I loved them with all of my heart, but I was blind by drugs and literal insanity. Fame and fortune as a professional musician was calling my name and I put both Casey and my mother through hell. Then I ended up homeless on the streets of Hollywood where the madness really started. My parents loved me unconditionally. No, they didn’t weaken to my nonstop attempts of manipulation; they became experts at ‘tough love’. But they always did so with genuine compassion.

When I was 17 I asked Casey to smash a guitar for my heavy metal band’s album cover. That may not seem to wild of a request. Casey was an engineer by trade and during World War II was a major in the army. He had a great sense of humor yet he was the closest thing to Mr Spock you’ll ever meet. Smart and logical – always! To my surprise he agreed and even shined his shoes for the photo shoot. It was so cool I named the band after him.

A little aside: I started to play drums in nightclubs at 14. Sometimes top 40 and sometimes loud crazy music! It didn’t matter to Casey and Mom, they liked to dance and would ‘jitterbug’ to Led Zeppelin. Now I laugh but at the time it was soooooo embarrassing. As crazy as my dream of playing music was my parents always supported me. I started to practice with bands downtown but because I was so young they didn’t feel comfortable. Casey built a room in the basement for my bands to practice. When I was a little older and large amounts of food would disappear after a typical marijuana smoke out band practice they sent me back downtown. While I go down memory lane here you should know at about 14 years-old I started to deal at times 20lbs of pot a week. Our basement was a major distribution hub if you will. One crazy snow storm hit when I had 11 other kids downstairs all wasted smoking dope. It was dinner time and the snow was too much for anyone to leave. I asked mom if they could eat with us, all 11 of them, no notice. As always Mom would say, ‘I’ll just make some more salad’ and a small gang of wasted youth gathered around the dinner table.

14 years ago I got sober. It didn’t happen overnight but I made a commitment to love on my family every chance I got. I was thinking about this today because I have several friends who complain their families don’t trust them after getting sober. Well, it takes time and effort! Casey and Mom didn’t trust me for a long time. I don’t blame them. I lied and stole from them for years. But every chance I had I would send a card or buy gifts. I loved and loved and loved on them. I can never take back some of the things I said and did to them! I cannot! But seeing Casey’s smile when the Universal tram ride tricked us to believe the water dam had broke and water was rushing at us, pulling into Dodger’s stadium watching his eyes get big driving into the parking lot, and taking him to his last movie, “The Aviator” because he once worked alongside Hughes Aircraft and the movie brought his past back to life all are precious memories of a great man I love with all my heart!

I love Casey and he loved me. But what I am truly grateful for is how he loved my mother! He took such good care of her! 20 years ago my mother had a severe stroke. To this day she has speech and mobility issues along with a paralyzed arm. Knowing Casey’s first wife had a long battle with cancer and then my mom having serious health issues must have really been hard on him. But he never showed it nor did he ever stop taking care of my mother. I don’t have words to express how grateful I am!

This last weekend Casey died. I had to take a detour from this road trip to go back and be with my family and to say goodbye to Casey! The night before the funeral I redetected my life to living as Casey showed me by example. To do what is right at all times even when others don’t! I honestly believe I am the person today because Casey showed me by example you can be a real man and never compromise.

I will miss him very very much. I apologize that some of the road trip had to be changed due to this unexpected emergency. I ask you all to please help me dedicate the remainder of InvisiblePeople.tv Road Trip U.S.A.to his name. Together let’s influence real lasting change this summer!

I love you Casey. Thank you for being my father and loving my mother with all of your heart!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 9:12 am and is filed under My Big Mouth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.