Local musicians turn out at Park Tavern to honor dead drummer
Ben Deignan walked to the edge of the Park Tavern stage Sunday night and called out for his friend and fellow musician, Lance Tilton.
“Lance, I love you, I miss you. I will never stop crying for you. I will never stop missing your guidance,” Deignan said during the last song of a 90-minute set.
Tilton, 29, was the drummer in Deignan's band – formerly called Suburban Soul. He died in a single-car accident two months ago.
Deignan's band was one of three groups to perform at Park Tavern on Sunday night. He invited six local drummers to fill in for Tilton as a tribute.
Tilton’s brother, Troy Tilton, and sister, Ginger Heise, also were there to raise money for the Lance Tilton Foundation -- created to fund music education in Atlanta.
“It’s to help children who couldn’t afford music education. A ‘Big Brother, Big Sister' type format with private and class instruction,” Troy Tilton told the AJC.
He said he wants the instruction to have sort of a rock-and-roll bent to it.
Heise flew in from Dallas for the event. She talked about a scrapbook she had made for Tilton, the youngest sibling, and of a photo that showed him standing in front of a drum set as a child.
“He taught himself how to play,” Heise told the AJC. “We always said he was the baby, and he got to live the dream.”
In the car accident with Tilton was Jonathan Morrison, 27, a bass guitar player with the Dave Matthews Cover Band. Morrison was seriously injured and is going through physical therapy.
Instead of playing Sunday night, he joined Deignan on stage to sing.
“It’s going to be a good experience,” he told the AJC last Saturday. “It’s going to be a good thing all around.”
