I first met Chris face-to-face in Glasgow in November 2017. Like many people outside of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metropolitan Area, where he was already a notable local celebrity, I got to know him online through his remarkable achievement of reuniting the Alice Cooper Group for a surprise 'Live From The Astroturf' concert in his record store in 2015. The reason we were in Scotland was to see a further appearance of the OG’s during their triumphant run of special encores on Alice’s UK tour that year.

This outrageous achievement cemented his eternal place in Alice folklore and my youthful exuberance at the time was such that I felt compelled to pay homage to him with a detailed feature about him on my website and the creation of a dedicated Facebook Group, which attracted a cult following. 

When we first shook hands, he reached for his pocket and withdrew a Live From The Astroturf record adaptor, which he’d modified into a badge. In front of a packed bar, he proceeded to knight me and officially pronounce me as ‘Vice President of the Live From The Astroturf Appreciation Society’. I knew right there that I had a special friend for life. 

We next met a few days later in London, where Dennis and Cindy Dunaway (who he clearly loved the most) attended a tiny record store to sign copies of Dennis’ autobiography. Taking my Vice-President role seriously, I persuaded my wife to help me bake some Live From The Astroturf 7” themed ‘Alice Cookies’, which went down a storm. I vividly recall Chris telling Dennis that I could be trusted and that they weren’t laced with poison as I had inappropriately joked when I presented them. 

Chris was always thinking of other people and spent most of the night (about three hours in total) streaming the event on Facebook (1, 2, 3) for fans to see. How he held his phone up all that time I’ll never know, but then his energy levels could never be measured using a standard human scale. 

Chris' imagination had no limits. When he told me he was going to release a 12" recording of Live From The Astroturf in 15(!) different colour variants I told him I thought he was stark raving mad. That didn't deter him though and he ended up doing even more! Sometimes Chris' imagination and commitment to the cause did get the better of him, and he overstretched himself, but almost everything he did ended up being a success bomb. He was the embodiment of the term 'speculate to accumulate'.

Two years later, Chris’ crowning glory occurred with the release of the Live From The Astroturf motion picture. With premieres at a number of film festivals, it allowed fans everywhere the chance to experience the magic of that night in 2015 and the crazy measures he took to make it truly special.

When he messaged me for help arranging a premier in the UK, I simply couldn’t say no, with a whirlwind four weeks ensuing as we constantly communicated across the Atlantic to plan and execute a memorable experience. His passion, his laser-like focus, his eye for detail was simply breathtaking (not to mention exhausting).

I remember picking him, Dennis, Cindy and Brian Cichocki up from Gatwick Airport, wondering to myself how on earth I ended up seeing the reflection of a member of the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in my interior car mirror. But that was the thing that Chris did, bridging the gap between the mundane and the magical, providing those special moments that make you want to get up every morning.

During this trip we shared a hotel room together, which only had one bed. Chris said that I could have it as he preferred to sleep on a hard floor due to an issue with his back. I thought he was just being exceptionally polite (maybe he was), but now know that he was suffering issues even then. 

The following year Chris entrusted me to be the films ambassador for its premier at the Manchester Film Festival. He was unable to attend, but Dennis and Cindy willingly returned to the UK to represent something, and someone, they absolutely adored.

Unfortunately, COVID-19 had other plans, with the UK going into meltdown as soon as they stepped off the plane. Chris’ concern for two of his idols was palpable, with him phoning me by the hour to make sure they were ok.  “Please don’t kill them, the world needs them” he would tell me. His relief at their return to the USA was obvious to see. They were his friends, people he held dear, and not a commodity to exploit for personal gain.   

I last saw Chris two years ago in Connecticut. By a remarkable twist of fate, a screening of the film had been scheduled on the exact day that my family and I were visiting New York City for a day. Timings were such that we would only be able to spend about an hour or two there, but this was Chris, so we rushed off the plane and bombed it into the city where Brian was there to meet us and whisk us to Westport Library.

We spent just a short time together, but I’ll never forget the hug, being held firmly by the shoulders and being told with total sincerity “I love you Papi”.

My last actual communication with him was just a few days before his tragic accident. I won’t tell you what we were talking about, but his last message simply read “Bastards”, so let’s go with the Westport Library farewell instead!

And there we have it, Chris Penn from my perspective. Uniter of people, reuniter of people, and all-round awesome guy. I expect many other people have similar stories to tell about him.

I know this is a well-used term, but Chris generally was larger than life. And I guess that’s why he’s moved on from our world. I’d like to think that he’s up there somewhere, hanging with Glen Buxton, listening to The Revenge Of Alice Cooper with that infectious smile all over his face. This thought makes me happy, but my heart aches for his wife and three boys.

If there’s a God, then I bet he’s thanking Chris for a life well lived.