« From Florida to Texas | Main | Fats Update: »

September 01, 2005

Fats Domino Chose This Time?

Exclusive: Mutual friend wonders if distraught Fats bowed out during Katrina

 

 

A longtime mutual friend of Fats Domino and of my own family told me today that he honestly wonders if Fats may have chosen this time to “disappear”.

 

The friend told me that over the years Fats has grown more and more withdrawn and frustrated over his perceived waning celebrity status and lack of media attention, feeling as if nobody any longer appreciated the thing he felt had for so long solely defined him.

 

The friend then related a story of how not too long ago while staying with Fats at his home in New Orleans during the holiday season that Fats refused to go out and instead insisted that the friend and he stay in so that Fats could entertain with some of his most memorable tunes.

 

Fats home, one of the most easily identifiable around New Orleans, with its domino themed walkways, swimming pools and so on, the friend noted, had also fallen into disrepair in recent years.

 

“He’s not a dumb guy… on the other hand there really isn’t anything else (other than being a famous performer) that he’s good at”. The friend also added that he felt Fats’ entire sense of identity, as it is often with many celebrities, was wrapped up in his public persona and that without that public persona, Fats felt lost.

 

“Maybe he just decided to disappear”, the friend said. He later reluctantly added that in light of Fats’ apparent growing sense of isolation and disillusionment with life that it could even be possible that Fats might have thought it good to go out with a bang, so to speak, by not fleeing from the path of the oncoming hurricane and accepting his end in that way.

 

We certainly hope that isn’t the case and pray he is alright. And Fats should know that America will always love him and remember his music. And certainly a New Orleans without a Fats Domino is a New Orleans even worse off than even thought.

 

Posted by Martin at September 1, 2005 08:56 PM

Comments