I found this article on Doug 'Wyatt' Earp and his passing back in 2004. I did not write any of this particular article, I only copied it here as a fond memory of the music store Doug started back in Flint when I was in high school. Reading through this article...I would have sworn I could have written it since the writer (Brent Bonet) had the exact same thoughts about Doug as I had. Doug introduced me to the british 'syth' scene in the early 80's and knew exactly what kind of new music I liked. When I stopped by the store, he'd pull out a new lp and say 'you'll love this one' and 90% of the time, I did. Doug was one unique individual and sounds like alot of people will miss him. If you want to know about Doug and his music store in Flint...keep reading. Brent sums it up quite nicely....
Doug ("Wyatt") Earp 1953 - 2004
Posted June 1, 2005 By Brent Bonet
Was back in Flint over the Memorial Day holiday. While there I stopped at Wyatt Earp Records to say “Hi” to Doug. Come to find out that he died of cancer in December at the age of 50. It felt like someone punched me in the stomach. Doug (”Wyatt”) Earp was the musical “enabler” for me and all of my suffering music loving friends. In the early to mid eighties (and beyond) he was our only source for the emerging punk and new wave music that we craved while stuck in the culturally deprived outpost of Flint, Michigan. Every Tuesday he would get a new list of music, domestic and imported, that was being released that week and in upcoming weeks. He was more important to me than Rodney Bigenheimer, John Peel, or Claire Kember. He changed my life. He was a friend. He was an Icon. Doug, I didn’t see you too often over the last 20 years, but your face, your voice, your smile, your laugh will be with me forever. I’ll miss you.
The obituary follows:From alt.obituaries:
Store owner nurtured music scene Doug Earp, 50 -- THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
By Doug Pullendpul…@flintjournal.com · 810.766.6140Doug Earp wasn’t a musician, but he was famous around town forsupporting and nurturing them. The owner and founder of Flint Township’s Wyatt Earp Records died ofcomplications due to cancer early Friday morning, three days shy of his 51st birthday. Earp was famous in local underground music circles - punk, heavy metal, rap - for being the guy who offered encouraging words, sold their albums and provided a place where they could promote their bands and socialize with others who shared their love of music, particularly music outside the mainstream. “His contributions have been immeasurable. He was like a den father.His record store was ground zero, the mother ship, for the wholescene,” said author Ben Hamper, who hosted a long-running punk musicradio and TV show, “Take No Prisoners,” which Earp sponsored. Earp’s death caught a lot of people by surprise. He was married for the first time Nov. 18. He started feeling ill about six weeks ago,according to Al Steel, his friend and co-worker for 18 years. “He just thought he had a cold,” said Steel, who described his fallencolleague and mentor as “my brother, my father, my best friend.” Earp was hospitalized Dec. 5 at Genesys Regional Medical Center inGrand Blanc Township, and was told he didn’t have long to live. Steel said his friend and boss took the grim news in stride. “He was the ultimate realist,” Steel said. “That’s why when the doctors told him what was going on, he told them thank you and gave them the thumbs up sign.” His life was a big thumbs up to the local music community he loved somuch. A Swartz Creek High School graduate, Earp worked at BoogieRecords and Rock-a-Rolla Records before starting his store, named after the 19th century lawman who supposedly was a distant relative, in 1981. The store, at 5204 Corunna Road in Flint Township, and its owner played an integral role in developing a healthy underground rock scene that is alive and well today. “As a teenager from the suburbs, walking into Wyatt Earp Records waslike visiting Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. Everywhere you lookedwas something you’d never seen before and you probably wanted,”recalled Joel Rash, owner of Flint Local 432, a downtown Flintalternative music space. Earp bankrolled Rash’s first all-ages shows in the late 1980s. He also helped out some of Flint’s earliest and important underground bands, including Repulsion, whose extreme brand of heavy metal, called grindcore, has been cited as an influence on European metal bands such as Napalm Death. Earp was one of the area’s first alternative music promoters, bringing pivotal punk and metal acts such as Slayer, Black Flag and 7 Seconds to town. He was famous for his cool, nonjudgmental approach to music. “Doug always seems calmly amused by something, in a Buddhist kind ofway,” local club disc jockey Michael Absher, who first met Earp in1984, wrote in an e-mail. “This is a man who kept an independent record store going for years in an out-of-the-way spot, with no advertising, as chain stores and other independents crashed and burned in a dwindling economy. And he never seemed to even break a sweat doing it.” Steel plans to keep the store open, though it will be closed Monday for Earp’s funeral. “I have every intention of carrying it on,” Steel said. Earp is survived by his wife, Sarah. Visitation will be from 7-9 p.m. today and 2-5 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. Sunday at Sharp Funeral Home, 8138 Miller Road, Swartz Creek. The funeral service will be at 11 a.m. Monday at Sharp. The family requests contributions be made to the Lance Armstrong Foundation.
