专辑简介

The spoken word poetry heard on Last Messages is the final testament of artist Peter Knapp. Peter’s music career began in the late 1960’s with the Soul band The Shaddows and later with his own group, the I Don’t Care Band. I Don’t Care released an album, “Ask Anyone” on Buddha records in 1976 and performed with the likes of Frank Zappa, Bruce Springsteen, and Bob Segar among others. Transitioning into artist management for the band Graf, Peter negotiated the group a record deal with CBS Precision Records in 1981. However, like a lot of 60's and 70's rockers, the 80's were not kind to Peter and he descended into heroin addiction. In 1985 Peter landed a stint in state prison for drug related offenses. After his release he left his past and family behind and moved to Maui, HI to pursue his poetry and live a simple life. It is on the island of Maui, HI that Peter got his artistic stride back. He composed two notebooks full of songs, poems, statements, and thoughts. An uncompromising individual, Peter often said that he “lived life as if it was his art” and was a recognized personality around Lahaina town. He frequently roamed the beach dressed in nothing but a sarong as the self-proclaimed Great White Tongan Love God and was always quick with a story about his wild past. However, Peter’s addictions caught up with him once again and he abruptly left the island in 2001 and returned to his native Ohio lost and disillusioned. Shortly before he left Maui Peter recorded about 90 minutes of his spoken word poetry and returned to Ohio with cassette in hand. Reading from his aforementioned notebooks, Peter reflected on his dreams, regrets, addictions, and passion for life. Back in Ohio, his beloved Maui now a fading memory, Peter decided to journey to the other side and died of a drug overdose on Oct. 16, 2003 at the age of 54. Last Messages was developed by his son Damian Knapp. Damian fused excerpts from the cassette recording with an early demo of the I Don’t Care band and produced “Songs and Poems by Peter-Last Messages”, releasing the music on Father’s Day 2018 as tribute to his late Father.