We are back from a week in the Pacific North West.  This was Pat O’Day territory.  As Charles Cross, the well-known Seattle music writer, told us, there isn’t a generation in Seattle that doesn’t know Pat O’Day for something.  Whether it’s his legendary on-air and then management stint at radio powerhouse KJR or his dance and concert promotion business in the 60’s and 70’s, or his 47th year in a row doing the TV play by play for Seattle’s Sea Fair, or as part owner and chief spokesman for The Schick Shadel Hospital (“Give us 10 days and we’ll give you back your life”), O’Day is a Seattle legend.

We spent 2 days on the San Juan Islands, where O’Day now runs a successful real estate business and a solid 5 hours at O’Day’s beautiful home on the water, running down all the stories from a life of peaks and valleys.  We covered O’Day’s relentless promotion of the local Seattle music scene which laid the groundwork for the grunge scene that would come decades later, his friendship with Jimi Hendrix, an attempt on his life early in his radio career, his brush with the mafia during his concert promotion days, his alcoholism, anti-trust lawsuit and Chapter 11 flirtation, and his time in Russia, helping to train the next generation of DJ’s.  And this only scratches the surface!

We spent time at The Space Needle, the Hendrix grave site, Pioneer Square, the always enticing Pike Fish Market, Kerry Park and the oldest Japanese restaurant in Seattle, to name a few locales.  And the aforementioned Schick Shadel Hospital where we talked with some addicts who are literally learning to get sick of alcohol http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPfL4LGALx4&feature=related.  The biggest challenge is going to be condensing O’Day’s story to bite size pieces in the edit.  His life could be a film on its own!

Left to right: Kevin MacKenzie (Sound Engineer), David Cain (Director of Photography), David Jermyn (Production Manager), Roger King (Producer/Director).  Middle: Pat O’Day