Former keyboardist Nazareth started bring this kid around rehearsals (who called himself "Turner") in the summer of 1999.  He said that he played bass, so in our usual style, we handed him one of our bass guitars and jammed with him for a while.  I must admit that on a strictly musical level, I liked jamming with this new kid - however his outward demeanor made me skeptical and I did not trust him at all.

He claimed to have been homeless at the time (he wasn't) and that he was adopted (which he also was not) and that his parents had recently kicked him out their home (also not true - according to his own parents).  Hearing these tales and taking them for 'face value', our theatrics man / manager Dan Gober insisted that Mike ('Bat Boy' as he would soon be christened) Turner come live with our commune of misfits.

He was offered free room and board (against my better judgment) in exchange for helping clean up around the house, and to perform simple household chores such as mowing the lawn, doing the dishes, etc.  Often Mike would deliberately feign being 'asleep' to avoid helping out at all - and when he was finally prodded to do the chores he had agreed to - he often did them poorly or neglected to fully finish them.  I often resorted to yanking him straight off the couch when the dishes remained piled up for weeks.

When he first started hanging around his head was nearly shaved, with a bit of stubble growing back in.  Dan pretty much insisted that Mike keep his head shaved for performances to complete an image that Dan had concocted.  He bought a pair of pointy elf ears for Mike and glued them to Mike's head, gave him a set of fangs, all of which resulted in a Nosferatu type appearance.  The rest of us on the other hand, felt he looked like the famed 'Bat Boy' - famous for appearances on the covers of tabloid trash rag "Weekly World News".  Hence, the name stuck.

Offstage, Mike was sort of a ham - often going too far with blatant sexual and disgusting antics just to amuse the select few around him - often at the expense of whichever poor hapless soul didn't quite 'fit in' well enough in the Nightmare camp.  Mike was the type that could be talked into a dare quite easily - often seen streaking naked down a public street just to amuse his 'friends'.

One day after taking his antics quite a bit too far (as per usual) percussionist, theatrics man, and artist extraordinaire, Russell David Pope, Jr. finally had enough and asked him to stop - three times.  When that failed to stop Mike from jumping on him - Russell pulled out a knife and point blank told him for the last time, to stop rough housing him.  Although I disagree with Russell's approach in regards to brandishing a weapon, I did not blame him.  From that point on my annoyances with Mike started growing to become dislike.  The aura around the house changed after this incident despite Dan's attempts to get everyone else around the house to feel more sympathy for Mike's plight - being 'an adopted kid' from a 'broken home' and all - or so we were led to believe.

Mike was constantly caught stealing pocket change and cigarettes out of my jacket pockets, as I had always had a habit of hanging my jackets up on my coat rack without fearing theft within my own home.  However things began to heighten when Mike would 'borrow' my guitars and equipment to jam with other bands without asking for my permission.  On one occasion Russell actually caught Mike and former guitarist Steve Moore walking right out of my house carrying armloads of my equipment after being told not to.  Russell's own requests to Mike and Steve to not 'borrow' my equipment without permission were similarly ignored. 

Within a few months, a new figure appeared to our rehearsal space.  Former Sunshine guitarist Monster had dropped by and shown some interest in joining forces and becoming a member of the band.  Monster was a highly charismatic figure around our camp, and immediately befriended all of our crew - including Bat Boy.

Being a very spiritual being that embraced what he called "The Magic(k)al Tradition", one of the first aspects of Monster's interests that caught hold on Bat Boy was the use of very strong powdered incense.  This heavy duty powder was placed into a placard and was burned right out in the open - not in the traditional cone or stick format that most consumers are used to.  The aroma was much heavier than traditional incense and according to your belief system, also had 'magical'  meaning - and "powers".  Bat Boy immediately became interested in burning this incense himself, and began abusing Monster's hospitality in inviting him to 'help himself'.

On an early December morning in 1999, I came home from work to find Monster and Bat Boy hanging out together downstairs in our rehearsal space.  It was time for me to drive Monster back to his home in Syracuse, while Bat Boy continued to hang out downstairs.  After returning a short while later, Mike was back upstairs passed out on our living room couch.  Myself being exhausted I went to sleep shortly afterwards - not realizing that I'd be rudely awoken within the hour by loud screaming.

Dan had woken up to the smell of smoke - coming through the air vents.  He began frantically screaming and shouting in an effort to wake everyone up.  Within seconds everyone including myself, my wife, Dan, his wife, and Russell were awake and heading down to the basement.  That is all of us besides Mike.  The only thing I remember in my half alert state was running, shouting, and knowing that my house was on fire before I was fully awake enough to see firsthand that my basement was engulfed in flames and heavy toxic smoke.  Luckily, the fire looked much worse than it really was, and was contained and extinguished within seconds - however the noxious fumes of the smoke hung in the air for long hours afterwards.  Even after Dan had violently yanked him off the couch several times trying to get him to help us extinguish the fire - Mike went right back to sleep throughout the whole ordeal.  A fire created by his own carelessness and one that he had no concern over the safety of our entire household.  After this incident, all of us except Mike (who we left slumbering on the couch) went out to breakfast and unanimously agreed that Mike had to go - something I had been trying to state for some time now.

Upon our return we found that both Mike and my bass guitar were missing.  Dan, Russell, and I drove over to Mike's parents house where we were not surprised to find both Mike and my bass guitar.  Mike's mother greeted us at the door and when we asked for our bass guitar, she explained to us that Mike had told her that he had 'just bought it' with the money his mother had given to him just weeks prior.  After Dan explained where the money really was spent (drugs, beer, and almost $200 worth of Hot Topix clothing) she seemed to realize that we were telling the truth and fetched the guitar.  She also didn't seem to be very shocked or surprised as we told her the story about why we were here in the first place - explaining the fire that was just set in our home.

All was quiet for a few months (aside from Mike telling some pretty tall tales to his friends to explain why he was no longer in the band, nor living at our house any longer) until another of our bandmates showed up one day with a stolen bass guitar someone was trying to sell to him.  Sure enough the thief turned out to be Mike 'Bat Boy' Turner, who was promptly arrested after we returned the bass guitar to its rightful owner.

Years went by and things again became quiet until the night of my wife and mine's second year wedding anniversary.  Our house had just been burglarized by another former Nightmare member back in June of 2002, so in the early morning hours of October the 13th, 2002 when my wife heard the sound of someone unsuccessfully attempting to open our front door with a set of outdated keys she was prepared.  At approximately 4 am after hearing this noise she opened the door to our entryway foyer and caught sight of Mike 'Bat Boy' Turner trying key after key into our front door.  He was unaware that he was being watched for several minutes until he happened to look up and see that my wife was staring right at him.  Instinctively he attempted to play it cool by asking if I was home (knowing full well that I was at work).  He then feigned a bit of forgetfulness by stating "Oh...you must be Courtney...right?...Boy it's been a long time".  My wife told him to hold on for a moment claiming that she needed to go get her cigarettes before resuming this conversation.  Instead of retrieving her cigarettes, she dialed 911, and while on the phone with 911 she looked straight back at Mike Turner and gave the operator a complete description of the face standing dumbfounded at our front door.  When Mike saw a patrol car coming down the street he finally wizened up a little and broke into a run - but he was a tad too late in his actions and was picked up and arrested.

Over the years, some mutual friends attempt to come to Mike's defense and claim that "he's quite different now" and that "he's really cleaned his act up" and is "trying to actually take a better path in life".  However, I still constantly see his name in the local police blotter arrested for theft, burglary, and a variety of other 'wholesome' activities.  Some people never change.