The basketball story is a good one at the bottom. From Beck: I heard the news this morning that Elliott Smith had passed away. It is a terrible loss for myself and many of my friends, who knew, worked and hung out with him. Needless to say he was one of the best songwriters of our day and a formidable musician. He was also soft spoken, intelligent and extremely humble. He had an acute sense of justice. At one of my shows last year he tried to intervene with security who were harrassing a kid, and was in turn beaten and arrested by them. We know he’s had his struggles over the years and I was heartened by word that he was on an upswing and preparing a new album. We even talked a few times about getting together and making some music when I got off tour. Nobody was to know what would happen, but I am grateful for the times we got to tour and hang out together. He will be missed and the ramifications of his absence will long be felt. - Bek
I have a good memory of him, from when I recorded a few songs for the xo album: we were at Sunset Sound, and on a break we were playing basketball, and he had all these wigs and costumes. He brought out this pirate hat that somehow had an eye patch built into it. Anyway, we devised a game where we all had to take turns doing a lay-up wearing the pirate hat and patch, and we each had to do our best pirate impersonation while trying to make the shot. It was ridiculous and somehow so sweet! At least he had a light side in there at some point. I'm going to hold on to that image of him hobbling towards the the basketball hoop in pirate garb, shouting, "Ahrrrrr!", and laughing. - Joey Waronker, longtime drummer for Beck.