BAD NEWS: Midtown Musician Mike Diaz Arrested For Robbery
Posted on May 7, 2011 – 12:16 AM | by OldManFoster
The rumors are true: longtime local musician Mike Diaz held up a gas station last week. He’s in jail.
The details are hazy, but most of the story is there. At 3:30 in morning last Thursday, April 28, Diaz approached the clerk working at the AM/PM at 16th and W. Holding his hand under his shirt, Diaz told the clerk he had a gun and demanded money. The clerk gave him the cash in the drawer and Diaz took off running. The clerk began yelling that he’d been robbed, and two Sacramento Bee deliverymen chased and tackled Diaz in the alley behind the station. They held him down until police arrived. Diaz had no gun, but did have the money – just over $100 – in his pocket.
This is one of the hardest stories I’ve ever had to write. I know Mike, and I think of him as a friend. Our bands have played together many times, I know some of his family – he even applied to be a cartoonist for the magazine when we first got MM off the ground. The Mike Diaz I see in the arrest footage (from Fox 40, here) looks like the evil doppleganger of the Mike Diaz I know.
This is the Mike Diaz I remember.
I can’t recall exactly when Mike popped up in the local music scene… it had to be over 15 years ago. He’d relocated here from, I think, somewhere in coastal California, and was yet another mod guy, looking smart in pegged slacks and his parka, sporting that peculiar Small Faces spiky-topped bowlcut that only Mods can pull off. He had some connection to the News and Review and wrote a complimentary blurb about my band The Shruggs at a time when it seemed like no one else on earth liked us.
At some point he started showing up in local mod-flavored bands… I can’t even remember the first of them, but probably the one that really got him some notice was the Payback. The Payback was a show band – perfect for Mike since he had good stage presence and some James Brown moves. The Payback didn’t last all that long, but Mike always landed in another group soon enough. It seemed like he had hit it pretty big when he joined the Minstrels, an incredible Canadian pop band that had relocated to SF. They were all the rage for a moment in the nineties, but now I can’t even find a youtube clip of them. Such is fame, I guess.
After that succession of bands, Mike decided to put together the group he’s best known for: Red Tyger Church. RTC has gone through at least a half dozen permutations, but Mike and his songwriting were always at the center. Whatever the lineup, it’s always been his band. They’ve had better and worse moments, but at their peak they were a flower psych powerhouse somewhat on the order of the Brian Jonestown Massacre. Mike still found time for other projects too, notably singing for Pretty Girls, a sort of Sacto All Stars of punk that ruled Midtown’s live music scene for a brief moment a decade ago. A Los Angeles pal of mine, Julien Nitzberg (director of the acclaimed Wild Whites of West Virginia) called me back then, irritated. “How come you never told me about this Sacramento band, the Pretty Girls? I just got their record and it’s incredible!”
I’m not sure when I became aware that Mike was having some problems, but it got pretty obvious, even to a devout square like me. Mike has battled substance abuse on and off since at least the nineties. And when I say ‘battled,’ I mean it. Mike went back and forth more than any addict I’ve known. He would descend into the depths, and crawl back out again. When Mike wasn’t using, he was counseling other addicts to get straight, to get their lives on track. He was counseling a mutual friend about alcoholism only a month ago. He knew how close it was at any moment. I know it doesn’t mean much given what happened last Thursday, but he tried. I’m convinced that he really did.
Only Mike knows the exact way he came to be at that place and time last week, but I’ve been able to piece together some of the story. He’d had had back surgery at the end of last year, and was prescribed medication for the pain; unsurprisingly, he developed an addiction. He moved out of town to stay with family, trying to get himself sorted out and get off the medication. Then, he made a brief visit to Sacramento -I’m not sure why- and found himself unable to refill his prescription. Withdrawls kicked in, and feeling that he had no other choice, he turned to street drugs; soon enough he was standing outside a gas station with his hand in his shirt. He was so messed up he could barely walk, let alone run away, after he got the money.
I’m not making any excuses for Mike. He made a terrible, terrible mistake, and he’s lucky that no one – including him – got hurt. And, from what I hear, he’s also lucky that he is not facing a 10 year prison sentence. I don’t have this 100% confirmed, but it sounds like he’s looking at something under a year in a minimum security facility where he will also get help with his demons. I hope so.
I can’t imagine what could have made him do this- again, that’s not the Mike I’ve ever known – but then, I’ve never been an addict. I count myself very lucky. And, though I’m not making excuses for Mike, I will say that most of us have friends or family who could easily find themselves in a situation not unlike Mike’s.
I know that some of his friends and family will be very angry with him, and rightfully so. Me, I’m just very, very sad.
Tags: AM PM, Gas Station, local Musician, Mike Diaz, Red Tyger Church, robbery
21 Responses to “BAD NEWS: Midtown Musician Mike Diaz Arrested For Robbery”
By Jonah on May 7, 2011 | Reply
Beautiful & sad piece, Tim. Thank you.
By Kendon Smith on May 7, 2011 | Reply
oh Hell. I used to play guitar in The Payback. At the time it was a nice break from the punk and metal bands that I was accustomed to. One day we were gigging in SF and I looked to the back of the club at the mirrors in the back and thought “wow- Mike looks good”. I thought the rest of the band was kind of shitty, but Mike was a considerable talent and I figured he would eventually be a significant artist—and then I heard about the drugs. Not too many I know ever got to walk away clean from that and this is yet another sad testament to that.
By Alison on May 7, 2011 | Reply
Written with a lot of love and compassion. Thank you for doing it even though it was hard.
By Erik Hanson on May 7, 2011 | Reply
Beautifully written Tim. Thank you for that one.
I know Mike as well, since 2002, and also consider him a friend. I had run into him about a month ago and we traded numbers and talked music. He was stoked about some new songs he was working on and I was stoked to hear them. He seemed “changed” to me, there was a peace about him.
Then I saw that video today and my heart sank and broke. The thing with Mike is he would do ANYTHING for you, give you his last dollar, say something to make your smile. Like you said, the Mike in that video is not the one I know. That person in the video is a lost soul.
I was work today thinking about his struggles ahead. I remembered we had traded numbers so I grabbed my cell phone and sent him a text, even knowing he may not get it, “Mike, you are in my prayers.”
By Jackson Griffith on May 7, 2011 | Reply
This is just flat-fucking-out sad. Having known Mike over the years and having seen his rocking bands and his struggles with the shit, seeing this development is just goddamn heartbreaking. I really hope you’re right about him getting into a situation where he can get help instead of CDCR warehousing. Christ, what a rotten turn of events. Thank you, Tim, for your compassionate writeup.
By Geof on May 7, 2011 | Reply
That looks and sounds an awful lot like the guy fronting a three-piece that played at Naked three weeks ago tonight. Think they called themselves Majestic. Amazing music. Really loud and bluesy, real rock ‘n’ roll. Jagger-like vocals but with a punk edge. I was more excited about them than I have been about a Sacramento band in a while. Really sorry to hear the sad news.
By Paul F on May 7, 2011 | Reply
Almost makes up for the fucked up joke you made about my friend, Jimmy Lindsey, aka, Jay Reatard.
By becky g. on May 7, 2011 | Reply
This is hard to read because it’s uncomfortable to see someone’s dirty laundry aired in public and commented on, but I guess that’s the kind of society we live in these days, and I know Tim cares.
I’ve watched friends and family struggle with addiction and I know the dark places it can take people. I don’t know Mike well but he’s always been a sweet, warm guy when I’ve encountered him and I hope he can get back in recovery. I’m glad no one was hurt.
By Zara Greer on May 8, 2011 | Reply
Thanks, Tim.
By OldManFoster on May 8, 2011 | Reply
Zara, you are the best.
By livmoe on May 8, 2011 | Reply
ditto
By ed on May 9, 2011 | Reply
A very respectful, well-written appreciation. The fact is, Ms Becky G, that the dirty laundry was already aired by Fox News and the Sacbee Crim Blog (where about 20 people “liked” the story!) and I think the piece is a valid, hopefully successful, effort to “control” the story from the point of view of those of us who know Mike. (Otherwise, those who don’t are going to base their opinion of him on that one clip.) The only reservation I have is that parts of it, and some comments, refer to Mike in the past tense. He is not dead. He may have wished to be in the first few days in jail without his preferred dosage/dope, but we should all keep in mind that he’ll be out one day and those of us who dig him should give him mad props and show him that he is still our pal.
Sincerely,
Tim’s “mutual friend.”
By Anon on May 9, 2011 | Reply
Praying for you to beat this, Mike! I don’t even know you that well – we’ve played a few shows together – but I do know that you’ve got a bona-fide talent and an honest drive for making awesome songs flow out of you. I truly believe that the music inside you is more powerful than any demons and addiction! I’ve seen that light pour out of you and it’s much stronger than any darkness. You can fight this and win! Just know that you’re a musical inspiration, even to us dudes out here in SF who hardly get to make it down to Sacto. Stand strong! You’ve got more records to make!!!
By Chris T. on May 9, 2011 | Reply
So fucking sad! Mike is such a sweet, nice, funny and talented guy and it hurts to see him this way. We just jammed a few months ago and things seemed Ok, but such is the way of addiction. On one minute off the next. Thanks to Tim for the write up as Sac Bee and Fox40 were a lot harder to take. He is not homeless! I hope he gets the help he needs this time and I am proud to be his friend as he just made a huge mistake and luckily made it out alive. In this video is my brother on bass and Mike is playing my guitar too. I was proud then and will be just as excited to see him play again in the future….This is not the Mike we all know, just remember that!
By The Speak Low on May 12, 2011 | Reply
I first saw Mike Diaz at a coffee shop open mic in late March. He was the best musician that night. I thought my set sucked like I always do but Mike asked for one of my cds. I was surprised and even more surprised the following week when he said he and his daughter loved my lil E.P and listen to it all the time. He asked me if I wanted to do a show with him in April at The Naked Lounge. I said yes of course. I remember a week before the show we were gonna try promoting the show. We met at Coffee Garden and we were chilling on the back of my truck and I was showing him some new songs I just wrote. Even though i butchered them he said they were good. That’s the Mike Diaz I know. Never got to do that show together but I’m looking forward to when we do.
By c martin on May 13, 2011 | Reply
an even sadder fact is that mike was scheduled to go to a detox program in 2 days, which he had arranged himself. he was just trying to hang on until then. he knew he was spiraling downhill fast and hated it and then lost control completely. this all happened over a few weeks’ time, except for his gradual buildup of pain meds. Geof, thank you for the comment about majesty, I will make sure he gets this and the other comments. my story is that as soon as a worthy band I’m in starts to get noticed, a disaster happens and it’s over. I dread thinking about that again, for mike’s sake. I’m honored to collaborate with him – he’s a musical genius, a local sacramento treasure, and a solid friend.
By Andy Laughlin on May 14, 2011 | Reply
Mike and I have seen each other both triumphant and miserable, and those who’ve been through it know that this kind of fall is just a drug away. Our relationship began 15 years ago with The Payback; me as an overly ambitious 16-year-old horn player and Mike as the breakdancing illegitimate love child of young Rod Stewart and Aretha Franklin. That relationship has continued through Majesty. Mike is a brilliant songwriter, quite possibly the only person I’ve watched write and entire tune, lyrics and all, without a pen and paper. Jail, chagrin and an aching body aren’t enough too keep a man like Mike down. Unfortunately, drugs might be I only pray you’re done, Mike. The world needs your honesty now more than ever and you are too good for this shit.
By Monica on May 17, 2011 | Reply
He’s a solid brother too. 🙂 Thanks for the article and the awesome words, all.
By Fernando and Margaret Diaz on May 17, 2011 | Reply
Thanks for a lovely and compassionate article. Michael is one of the most good hearted and good natured human beings we have ever known. He’s always had a kind workd for everyone no matter what wrong they’ve done to him and he’s always there for everyone helping in any way he can. He is so so self critical and depreciative of himself and his talent and only his daughter and his music keep his spirits up. He rarely gives himself credit for any of his compositions and lyrics that come from the heart, and we’re sure he doesn’t even let people he was a journalist with whole page write-ups in the Santa Maria Times. However, he feels and hurts too much that drugs have been an enticing factor to soften his pain. This we know to be true from two people who know him and love him dearly.
By mike diaz on Jan 16, 2016 | Reply
Thank you all, truly.
By mike diaz on Jan 16, 2016 | Reply
Thank you all