At 15, my best two-on-two partner on the basketball court had to have been Flea. He was good, very good, and even though we were both short, we kicked some butt on the court.
It seemed like I saw Flea almost everyday shootin' around with his basketball at Poinsettia Park in West Hollywood, California. They called it the "Park of the Stars" and my dad and I lived right on the corner next to the park. We also rented a small office for our television and film production company that was also located adjacent to the park.
I additionally recall Flea always tellin' me where he had just finished "giggin" and how his band, The Chili Peppers, were startin' to take off. To be honest, I really didn't think nothin' of it 'cause there were tons of bands in West Hollywood tryin' to "make it" and I just wanted to win basketball games.
Anyway, to make a long story short, I finally got my first drum set and my dad used to let me practice alone in the office. I'd play some beats, practice my rudiments and beat on my roto toms as loudly as I could...then, guess what happened one day? "Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!!" Hard knockin' on the office door. "Dude, you play drums?", gleamed my b-ball partner. I let him in, he got on the drums...he was better than me!! "Oh, so you play the drums in your group?", I asked. "Nah, man, hold up a sec...".
Flea ran out of the office to his car and moments later came back with an electric bass guitar and a super small red amplifier in the shape of a gasoline can, lol. "Let's see what you got!", blurted Flea. He started playin' somethin' funky but I was afraid I wouldn't be able to keep up. I put up my best effort.
Flea was a bass player and I jammed with him...for a hot minute.
Director/Screenwriter/Author Shavar Ross is best remembered as a child actor. He played "Dudley", Gary Coleman's best friend on the hit 1980's television show "Diff'rent Strokes". Shavar has been an actor for well over 20 years and has starred in over 100 film and episodic television productions such as Magnum P. I., MacGyver, Friday The 13th Part 5, Chicago Hope, Designing Women, The Bold and the Beautiful, What's Love Got To Do With It?, Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air, Family Matters, and many more.
Currently Shavar is also establishing himself as an up and coming film & television director. "Soul to Take", Shavar's 26-minute short film marked his directorial debut and the film has recently received distribution through Simmons Lathan Media Group. Lord Help Us, a romantic comedy starring American Idol's Nadia Turner and comedian Joe Clair will mark his feature film directorial debut and the movie is currently in stores nationwide on DVD and on Amazon.com among many others.
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