The first day I met him we had a conference inside his "Camper Van Beethoven" as he called it, a Volkswagen Camper Van with the top popped up, and lined all around it was his collection of Gold Albums. We ended becoming friends, musical partners for a short time and roomates, sharing a metal trailer that was only equipped with a "swamp cooler" for air conditioning. By 11:00 in the morning the temperature would start climbing to around 100 degrees.
Mark was 35-36 years old at that time and I was 26. I ended up playing bass for him and we did a few gigs while together.

We hung out at Pantheon Studios and worked as the Mark Anthony Project picking up a drummer who was from New York, at that time he was writing "The Stranger" and did some video film tests. We also did his song "Put Your Love On Ice". We did a gig with John Cale and he told me to play the bongos and then he proceeded to call me "Bongo Love Child" as a joke. I still have a photo of us in the trailer with those red sparkle bongos and Yamaha guitar. I was so swept away with everything that I sold my keyboard, portastudio and some other gear to rebuild Mark's Volkswagen camper-van and get him a ticket back to Hollywood where he had a meeting with a friend at Cherokee Recording Studios.

To make a long story longer, Mark and I had business deals and he put his BC Rich guitar up for collateral along with that Music Man amp and took off to try and get a deal. I eventually went back home broke and busted, but with a BC Rich guitar and that amp! I borrowed his brother's car and went to the swap meet that was held every week at the Greyhound Dog Track, where previously Mark had gambled our last $500 and lost it all, but the dogs were coming in very close! Mark knew the track well.

After selling my bass rig, a 1938 Gibson EH150 amp for $60.00!!! and whatever else I could get, I took Ken's car (his brother) bought a plane ticket and went to the Holiday Inn for a nice stay before going back home. I duct taped the two guitars together and shipped my amps by freight and left Ken's car in the parking lot and took a taxi to the airport. I am sure Ken thought his car was stolen, but I sent him word before I left and later sent him the key to the storage locker where I left Mark an acoustic guitar, a mini xylophone and a bunch of other crap.

There are just tons of stories where we would go into Denny's for food, neither of us having any money whatsoever, and somehow, with the use of his smile, a small tape player with headphones and some press photos, we would end up getting the waitress to pay for the bill by making a donation to the "Mark Anthony Project." - We did all kinds of "hustling" just to get by, some I care not to mention!

Mark was a kind and caring person. I remember one time I wanted some herb because I didn't drink, and he came back with some for me from a friend. (He didn't smoke.) To Mark there was two kinds of dope…our dope and stripper dope! Another time I took a bible that was in my truck (who I sold to Ken) and threw it on the ground out of disgust, and Mark picked it up and said, "Don't do that" and proceeded to tell me a story about how he went to a party at Linda Blair's house, and while taking a shower, some "entity" wrote a weird message in the fogged up mirror.

Another time he told me about almost getting caught while "being with" Don Henley's old lady while Don was coming in the front, he was going out the back! Many stories and wild evenings. It was the high time and the low time in my life all at once.

From what I have heard, he was in SoCal when Garth Brooks was the biggest thing in the world, and he heard Garth say in an interview "King Of The Night Time World is my favorite song" and immediately he packed up everything and moved to Nashville where he became known as "The KISS Cowboy." In addition to Hollywood Stars, Mark also wrote "Escape" - Alice Cooper Welcome To My Nightmare" / "Crystal Nights- Eric Burdon" / A song off of 3 Dog Night album, A song for Lita Ford, He showed me the cancelled check where he sued Bachman Turner Overdrive for stealing one of his songs and releasing it in Canada.

I remember co-writing a song, but more so, I sat there and scribed down words while he strummed and let his muse flow..in that hot metal trailer in Phoenix. One day an old nemesis came and robbed me at gun point in that sign shop. Mark was freaked out and grabbed his father's shotgun but when he made it back,
they had already left stealing my bass

guitar and a 4-track reel-to-reel recorder. I still have his/my guitar, though I dropped it in St. Louis one night and had to have the neck repaired. The amp was sold several years ago as it needed major rebuilding. I played that guitar in front of 50,000 people in 1991 at a festival. I did ask Mark one day, "What happened to it all?" - He simply replied, "Most people dream about it, whereas I went out and lived the dream" and spent every penny never looking back."

R.I.P. my friend Mark "Anthony" Warner, Eighth Power Music.
Greg Lawrence
gregorylawrence@hotmail.com
January 23, 2010
Photo's available on Faces 4-See January 25, 2010