There is a lot to say about this guy. I could blame him for a lot of my misfortunes with losing and endangering friendship and trust with some of my closest friends and favorite musicians, but to do that I would have to place some of that blame on myself for letting it happen in the first place, and for not firing him long ago. All negativity and personal feelings aside, I will tell the story as is and you can be the judge if you so desire.

I first met Dan back in 1993 at a party I attended to meet RaYzor. My first impression was that he was the most annoying, irritating person I had met in some years. Back then he looked and acted a lot different, so much so that those who have only met him in recent years would not have recognized him at all. He immediately 'befriended' me at this party and once RaYzor came to become our drummer, Dan tagged along.

I was not alone in my dislike of this guy. Aside from RaYzor, the rest of the band (myself included) asked RaYzor not to bring Dan to rehearsals anymore for his own safety. One would think this was the last we would see of Dan...well it wasn't. When RaYzor left the band to play for 99¢ Special, a new Dan complete with long dyed black hair and recently acquired tattoos was a theatrics man for the band. I was friends with RaYzor, and become friends with 99¢ Special's frontman, Exit and agreed to help out with transportation for a few of their early Syracuse shows, which meant I had to tolerate Dan. In addition to his change of appearance, his attitude became a bit more relaxed and I found that I could actually speak to him occasionally without wanting to throttle him constantly. Dan convinced the members of 99¢ Special to move into the legendary 99¢ Special homestead near the heart of Syracuse. As I was becoming entranced by the music of 99¢ Special, as well as depending on RaYzor and Exit for help with my Amiga music software needs, I began to see more of Dan, and reserved myself to think that he wasn't as bad as I had pitted him out to be. Shortly after moving the band to Syracuse, Dan found a new soon-to-be-wife and lost interest in 99¢ Special. I spent the next year without hearing or seeing from Dan at all.

In late 1996, the unthinkable happened. 99¢ Special disbanded and tragedy arose shortly after when a mutual friend of ours was killed in a freak accident. Dan's marriage was over and he rejoined our small group of friends as we all stayed close in time of grief. Within the year, Zadoc: Vampire Theatre had a new demo and some of it's greatest and worst moments exploding in a bang in December of 1997 when I, myself, resigned from the project.

I was far from done with writing and performing music, and I began to assemble a new band which I named The Seventh Sin. Immediately following me in were my former Zadoc cohorts Steve Moore and RaYzor. I wanted a different feel to the theatrical edge and upon running into Dan at club one night, I asked him about his time in 99¢ Special and whether he would be up to trying theatrics again.

Dan and I became close friends after that incident. One of the reasons I resigned from Vampire Theatre was because of the stagnant approach the band had. Most of the creative work was done by myself and Dark Cloud, and was swiftly vetoed, sighed at, and unenthusiastically approached by the remaining members of the band. This was not the case in The Seventh Sin. I created the music the theme, and Dan choreographed the rest. If someone was stagnant, Dan was just the person to ram it down their throats. We got along great until Dan realized his strengths and power. Dan was incredibly important, doubling as our manager he dealt with a lot of the sides of the business I didn't really like. I had more time to create as he took control of the booking the performances and choreography. But giving Dan power came at a price. The first bit of resistance he met was with former Zadoc alumni Steve Moore. From that point on Steve was a target for Dan. Everything Steve said or did was 'wrong' as far as Dan was concerned. He didn't look good on stage, he didn't wear the right clothes, etc. What Dan had seemed to overlook was the fact that he could play the songs. Seeing this was a no win situation, I called the band to a close rather than having to fire anybody and Dan and I embarked on what we should do next.

We began hanging out with another former Zadoc alumni, the Jester, when the idea cracked. Dan convinced me to revive Zadoc: Vampire Theatre. We re-emerged as a three piece featuring the Jester on drums and Dan faking the bass guitar. Dan did not have the patience and discipline to learn to play the bass and therefore opted not to plug it in, but to rely on a synthesized bass line for him to 'air guitar' to. This was extremely short lived as the Jester became a father and had to resign. Dan met several young well dressed friends through his soon-to-be-wife #2 and convinced them to fake their instruments while they learned the music so that we could continue to play the shows he had booked. I argued that we needed real musicians and gave Steve Moore another call. I was unhappy with the lack of musicians and with help from Dan's constant pushing, founding member Kirk Brinley was re-entered into the band bringing his then girlfriend along to play keyboards.

Dan went back to his fire breathing theatrics until a fire breathing stunt went horribly wrong. Unbeknownst to the band, Dan's antics went haywire in the midst of performance and he was burned from his face to his chest. Heroically, he insisted that the show go on, and even refused to go to the hospital until all of our equipment was safe at home several hours later. This was the last time Dan would ever perform theatrics.

Dan took a short break from the band and began hanging out and befriending Kirk and his girlfriend. Kirk and his girlfriend began to have problems in their relationship, this caused stress in the band as well as stress between Kirk and Dan as Dan began to hang out with her without Kirk. It became obvious that Dan began to dislike Kirk, and the feeling was mutual. Kirk and his girlfriend broke up shortly thereafter.

Kirk was having a rough time keeping his emotions, his job, and his tolerance of Dan in check and on August 19th, 1999 he played his last show. Although I kept my composure, I felt like crying. Kirk put a lot into this band - time, money, a few songs here and there, to see him go and leave the music business behind was difficult despite the problems I was having with him musically. Dan's dislike for Kirk did not get any easier on us all as roommates, and shortly thereafter a chaotic house war had erupted. I do not wish to revisit that incident in detail as there was a lot of ugliness and dishonesty on all sides, but it deserves mention as it was the first time I really questioned why I was still working with Dan. Kirk has on more recent occasions confessed to me that Dan was the primary motive for him leaving the band.

At this point in the band Steve Moore and Kirk had left the band and I complained that we needed a strong guitar player to fill the void. Dan began scoping out the clubs in search of our man. He had a few potential candidates when one evening he brought a face very familiar to me back to our rehearsal space. It was none other than Monster, the founder of the seminal goth-metal band Sunshine.

Sunshine had been a band I followed intently years before. I looked up to those guys, and especially the weirdness of their extravagant avant-garde guitar shaman, Monster. We had met a few times at the infamous 99¢ Special house parties where I was introduced to the band. I followed them from show to show until they became stagnant in 1996, constantly cycling through band members. But here he was standing in our rehearsal space with Dan attempting with the best of his charm to convince him to join us. I could not have done this myself, as I would not have had the heart to tear him away from Sunshine, who were one of my local musical idols. If for only one thing I have to be grateful to Dan Gober for, pairing me up with Monster would be it.

Dan and Monster became very close, and it was not often that you would see one without the other. Like myself, Monster could see the talent in Dan, or 'star power' as he would say, and began to make him a proper bass player in addition to being a powerful manager. As I mentioned, I knew Dan had talents, but we could not meet on a level of his lack of patience versus my tolerance. Monster was able to show tolerance and deal with his impatience, as was Dan able to increase his patience to learn from Monster.

We all knew how much of a good fit Monster was, and I believe this made it hard on the rest of the band to meet the bar, so to speak. Dan went on what seemed to be a personnel rampage resulting in more musicians and theatrical help being hired and fired within a one year span than had been in and out in the band's existence. Some of his decisions I agreed with, but the ones I did not agree with Dan fought persistently. If it was concerning hiring someone who I felt inadequate, I must admit, I usually won. Sadly, however, the reverse was usually true for those Dan wanted to be rid of. In some cases Dan would attempt to bargain with me by quickly finding a replacement for the doomed band member, other times he has been accused of setting people up to take the blame for things he knew were grounds for dismissal (sometimes he would later admit to doing so, himself!), and still other times he would serve me an ultimatum threatening to quit himself if the offending target wasn't let go. But what bothered me the most was the fact that he could not let go of his resentments even after the person in question was gone. For the second time in two years, I began to question why I was still working with him.

Although it hurt quite a bit to watch Kirk Brinley, Steve Moore, Russell Pope, and others be slowly edged out of the band, I did not put up as much as a fight as I did when Dan wanted to give Monster the boot. To this day, I do not understand what happened that made Dan begin to suddenly dislike Monster.

When it became evident that Dan would be campaigning to remove Monster I refused to budge. The usual procedure in events was starting to unfold, and to make matters worse I began to have a few personal problems of my own with Monster, as he was a roommate as well. Explosive arguments erupted in the house making living together a complete hell for everyone, but I refused to submit to Dan's request to fire Monster from the band. I asked Monster to move out, for his own sanity as well as mine and assured him that I would do everything in my power to keep the band together. Dan threatened to quit if I did not fire Monster, and in a moment that felt like relief, I let him quit. Within a few days he had changed his mind and we all sat down trying to make peace with our personal problems affecting our business relationship, but it was not to last long. One last incident occurred which resulted in Monster's termination of the band. As if things weren't bad enough, Dan began to have disputes with Monster over their equipment. Monster had bought a B.C. Rich guitar months before and had proclaimed that it was a gift to the band. Dan remembered this statement and refused to return the guitar, and reminded him of what he had said. Monster complied and was gone.

Things had finally changed between Dan and myself, but the final straw came one evening in our living room when Dan's wife casually confided to me that the most frightening argument we had between Monster and the rest of our household (that almost ended up in physical violence and the police being called) started by a phone call that never happened. She casually stated that 'Dan had made the whole thing up just to get Monster in trouble'.

I could no longer look at Dan and his wife as human beings. They put the band and more importantly the safety of my wife, Monster, Monster's family, and their selves in serious physical jeopardy. It wasn't long before they decided for whatever reason they have to dislike me, to move out and disassociate. I took this opportunity to fire him, and it was not surprising to me that he attempted to take SINdy with him and attempt to form a new band. It did not last long before his equipment showed up for sale in our local music shop, including the guitar that was 'given' to the band by Monster.

As of this writing I have not spoken to, seen, or made any attempt to contact Dan in almost a year. He has given up music as a profession and lives with his wife in a house out in a rural area.