Let me just start this out by saying my name is Richard Martin AKA The Rooster and I have a collecting music memorabilia problem.

Now since I have that out of the way, I can continue my story about the coveted Dave Williams autograph. If you don't know who Dave Williams is, he was the original lead singer of Drowning Pool before passing away on August 14th 2002.

In the 6 years that I have been a FMX DJ I have built up a pretty respectful collection of autographs, posters and whatever else. Now can you imagine what Wes and Driver have hidden away after their combined 70 years of doing radio.

Over the past year Wes has been talking about how he has giving way some of his personal collection and I actually ended up getting a Quiet Riot mask that was signed by the group in 1983 which is one of my all time favorite bands. So in trade I started to do the same thing. I have giving away some of my collections to those that I know that would enjoy it more that I would. Examples are a Clutch banner that was signed I gave to G-Man of LCMC because he was a Clutch fan, A Avenged Sevenfold pass that wqas signed I gave to a young lady because I know that Mia is one of the biggest A7X fans out there, I also had a Black Label Society vest that was signed by the entire band and I gave to a a couple's son that are good friends of the station. Why did I do it? Not for the public praise or anything like that, that stuff would have just sat for years and collected dust. It didn't mean that much to me. Now there are things that I will never give away, my Goatwhore autographed vinyl, Carnifex autographed vinyl and so on.

I had heard Wes talk about that he thought he might have a a autographed Drowning Pool with Dave Williams. The thought of getting my hands on my hands on that was just incredible to me. I saw I started to butter Wes up asking him if he wanted to trade for it. Of course his answer was you have nothing I want. So I just kept on and on about for months asking him every day if he brought my Dave Williams and every time the answer was no. That was until this past Friday when he said "I'll be drinking margaritas on my back patio. swing by if you want one" that was all I needed to hear. I knew that I was going to have the Dave Williams in my hand at the end of the night.

Towards the end of the night Wes gets up and walks inside and brings out 4 large photo album's and says if you can find that Drowning Pool you can have it. Now you just don't go tearing away at them and yes pun intended on that one. I love to look at music memorabilia and ask to hear stories about what I am seeing. Page after page there is just some of the coolest stuff I have seen, Metallica ticket stub autographed, Fire Cracker Five ticket stub, Disturbed autograph the list goes on and on. Until I find it all by its self a autographed Drowning Pool sticker that was used as a promo for Drowning Pool's debut album and as I looked at in awe my heart dropped as I told Wes I couldn't take it.

He asked why the hell not and it was simple because underneath the sticker attached was a space that was all white and it was signed to Wes.

To Wes-

Love Drowning Pool

It was just something I couldn't do. I mean it was autographed to Wes and I just couldn't take it. I have thought about this if I would have taken it I would have always said yes my boss gave it to me and so on. But I just think that when something is autographed to you it's something that can't be passed on to anyone else other than family. Since I have seen the Dave Williams Drowning Pool and I now know that I can't take it, I can now focus on some of the other bad ass memorabilia he has.

I never got to meet or see Dave Williams but I love to hear stories about him from Wes and my bro Cristian Machado of Ill Nino. Cristian has Dave's mic stand he used on stage and to see my bro talk about his fallen friend he just lights up. Dave Williams was something very special to alot of people and he was taken way to early but his music and legacy will live on.

I want to know what would have of done? Would you have taken the autograph even though it was personalized to someone else of would you have let it go?

Because you can bet if it wasn't personalized to Wes, it would be framed up in my house right now!

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