Justin Cary Photography

A couple days ago I was working at the kitchen table when a name caught my attention on the news, Jared Hobaugh.  Jared was killed in a plane crash on the 22nd.  Anyone who went to Maize or Valley Center… well, any high school between 1996 and 2000 knew and probably attended a few Shaft gigs.  Few people know this but I wanted to play an instrument and start a band because of Shaft.  I really looked up to those guys… let’s face it, they were bad ass!  Jared was the lead singer and an all around great guy.  I didn’t meet him until the Shaft days were over.  Jared ran sound for our band on numerous occasions and I remember one show in particular, in the middle of a field south of Newton.  He brought all of his gear out, set it up and provided some killer sound for 5 bands and at least a couple thousand people.  We were rock stars that night, thanks to him!  When the night was over he walked up to me and wanted me to know how good our band sounded.  That meant the world to me.  Jared Hobaugh, the same guy that pushed me to be a musician… crazy what effect people can have on a kid and never even know it.  Wish I wasn’t so stubborn and would have let him know that himself.

The Hobaugh family is in our prayers.  I saw the newscast tonight and Jared was supposed to walk his sister down the isle…  That’s when it hit me.  He’s gone.  You won’t be forgotten my friend.

Justin Cary

A little tribute to Shaft.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 24th, 2009 at 9:29 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.