Interesting read from Houston...
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/hoffman/5706922.htmlOne song touches the heart
By KEN HOFFMAN
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
There was a raw emotional moment during Bruce Springsteen's concert Monday night at Toyota Center that fans might not have understood.
Introducing Terry's Song, a song Springsteen wrote about the death of his friend and personal assistant for the past 23 years, Frank "Terry" Magovern, Springsteen said, "This song is for the Cox boys, Christopher Cox, Curtis Cox and Timmy, but I'm dedicating it to Ward Cox, number 9."
After the slow, sad song, Springsteen bent to one knee, face down, and held his guitar straight up for 20 seconds.
Toyota Center was silent.
Ward Cox, 16, died last October in a swimming accident in Galveston. He was a student at St. Thomas High School in Houston, one of those kids who seems to know everybody, and whom everybody loved. He wore No. 9 on his football jersey. Twenty-five hundred young people attended his funeral.
"We had no idea that Bruce was going to dedicate that song to Ward. I was hoping he would sing Terry's Song because he had never performed it live before. If you go on YouTube.com, you'll see a video about my son's life with Terry's Song playing in the background. It was an incredible moment, you can't imagine how incredible, when Bruce talked about him," said Tom Cox, a Houston businessman.
Some of the lyrics of Terry's Song:
"Now your death is upon us and we'll return your ashes to the earth
And I know you'll take comfort in knowing you've been roundly blessed and cursed
But love is a power greater than death, just like the songs and stories told
And when she built you, brother, she broke the mold."
"I have a friend who, without me knowing, passed Ward's story to Bruce's people. We got a phone call at 3 p.m. Monday asking if we had tickets to the concert, which we did, and saying there would be backstage passes for us. After the last song, we were escorted back to a room, and Bruce met me, my wife, Anne, and our sons and talked with us for about 30 minutes. He made a line of Houston celebrities wait while he talked to us about our son. I have learned that Bruce takes special interest in stories about people like Ward. I gave him a picture of my son and a bracelet with his name on it. We hugged and left," Tim Cox said.
"It was an unbelievably emotional experience, very powerful and heavy, to know that Bruce Springsteen honored my son from the stage like that. Terry's Song is special; the words have helped my family heal. I've always liked Bruce Springsteen and his music. Now I think of him more as a compassionate human being and a friend."