To All Readers Of My Journal

  Hi Everyone! I just found out that my Journal/Autobiography has been selected as a Featured Screen on AOL Music Talk. I can't tell you how surprised I am about that, because when I started writing this...I never thought anyone would ever read it, and this is the first thing I have ever really written, except for my songs. Before I changed the address of this site two months ago, I had nearly 3500 "hits" on it, and well over 1500 since... I have received a number of emails from all over the country over the past six months, from AOL members who have become regular readers, and who tell me they really like my writing, and find the story compelling...and ask me when the book or movie is coming out! All I can do is thank all of them and tell them that I haven't got a clue about that...I had no plan to do anything but write my story for me...as part of my recovery process...so if something should come from all of this in either of those areas...I'll be more surprised than anyone! Special thanks to Dawn @AOL Entertainment for her help in getting this Journal selected as a Feature...as well as to everyone @AOL Entertainment for selecting my story.

   I am currently in Connecticut, away from my computer in Palm Beach...doing some recording after a twenty three year seperation...with the two surviving members of my band Avalanche...which is prominently featured in the journal up to this point. (Our close friend, and multiple-Platinum Record award-winning original bass player Charles Calmese was killed in an automobile accident a number of years ago.) Being able to reconnect with these guys...personally and musically, is a blessing and a gift of recovery...and the music is still as powerful as it was twenty years ago, and in many ways, we are all much better musicians than we were then ...so hopefully, some good music will come out of this brief reunion in the studio. I look forward to getting back to writing the story of my life when I return home to Palm Beach on June 15th.

  The Journal is a work in progress...it is written chronolgically, and it is much more enjoyable, and makes much more sense... if it is read in sequence, from the very beginning. If anyone is interested in doing that...go to "Older Entries" and then October 2003, and scroll to the bottom of the  October entries...where you can then click on the blank space between the date..and the words "posted by"...that will pull up the first entry, and then just advance the entries in sequence by clicking on  the next entry's title in the right side of the red strip. Everything in the story is totally true, and just as I remember it...although some of the details have escaped me on some things, due to heavy drug use. I have used friends to help me to get "second opinions" on the facts...and I'm comfortable telling you all that the story is very accurate. I am currently up to the year 1982...so there is a whole lot more to the story to come...including the miracle of recovery from the Disease of Addiction...the rediscovery of my musical skills....the healing of body, mind, spirit, and relationships with friends and family...which were all seriously damaged as a result of the events of my life, and my addiction. I am truly a veteran and a survivor of the "Rock and Roll Wars"...and this story has a little bit of everything...from music, and touring (and/or sharing stages with bands like AC/DC, Buddy Guy and Junior Wells, Big Mama Thornton, James Cotton, Muddy Waters, Matt "Guitar" Murphy, Mitch Ryder, The Chambers Brothers, Pat Travers, Buddy Cage, Johnny Winter, Rick Derringer, Jeff Golub, The Mohegan Sun All-Stars, formerly The Shaboo All-Stars...to name only a few)...to drugs, drug dealing, murders, addiction, prison, and recovery from addiction...a spiritual awakening, the rediscovery of myself and my music, and the subsequent renaissance of my songwriting and performance skills. Any and all comments are welcome from all of you...and I hope you enjoy it... and thanks for taking the time to check it out!....Michael / Navlanch@AOL