Tom Petty Tribute At Skipper’s Smokehouse — A Fun, But Sad Night

It was back in August when I saw the announcement that Skipper’s Smokehouse — the recently reopened, venerable restaurant and music venue in North Tampa — was going to host a Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers tribute band in honor of what would have been the late rocker’s 71st birthday.

Gary Nager Editorial

I told Jannah, who is as big a fan of Petty’s music as I am, that I was buying tickets right away — after all, if we can’t ever see Gainesville’s favorite son in person anymore, we might as well go spend an evening sharing our love for him, his band and his music with a few hundred other people at the first live show we’ve attended at Skipper’s since it reopened.

The show took place on Oct. 16, four days before Tom’s birthday and twelve days after the fourth anniversary of his passing from what has been ruled an accidental overdose of the prescribed painkillers he took in order to be able to keep performing for his legion of fans.

When I bought our tickets online, I didn’t realize that the show, which started at 8 p.m., was actually a twin bill — prior to the Petty tribute by the Broken Hearts Band, the Stevie Nicks Experience (SNE) tribute band opened the show with a full 90+-minute set of tunes by Fleetwood Mac and from Stevie’s solo career. Considering that Nicks and Petty became close friends as part of the Los Angeles rock music scene in the mid-to-late ‘70s, the combination wan’t surprising, but it did make for a long night, especially considering that I was on deadline with this issue.

Even so, both bands performed their tribute hits admirably. The SNE got the fans going by rocking out on “The Chain,” “You Make Lovin’ Fun,” “Landslide” and pretty much every recognizable song by Fleetwood Mac and Nicks herself. Although the fans were very receptive to the performance, there were only a few hardcore Nicks lovers dancing to the music and honestly, the set was probably at least 15-30 minutes too long because most everyone in attendance was there (us included) to celebrate Petty’s birthday, not Fleetwood Mac.

The SNE closed their set with the Petty-Nicks duet “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” with Broken Hearts Band frontman Shawn Scheller coming out from backstage to sing Tom’s part, but his microphone seemed a little off for the song, which made me (and Jannah) a little nervous about how Scheller and his band would sound when it was their turn to take the stage.

But, we were wrong. Scheller and the Broken Hearts sounded perfect, from “Jammin’ Me” to open the set to “Don’t Do Me Like That,” “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” and, of course, “American Girl.”

The crowd was much more raucous and the dance floor more packed for this second set, but there were very few people under age 50 in attendance and the Skipperdome offers very little seating for attendees, so people with bad knees (like me) were begging for more places to sit during the show. The much sadder thing for us, though, was that the magic we hoped to feel by sharing our love for a true Rock & Roll Hall of Famer somewhow wasn’t there.

Although Scheller & Co. were pretty spot-on with most of their renditions, the performance overall felt more like listening to Tom Petty Radio on Sirius XM in my car than it did a Petty concert, which is what I guess I wanted it to feel like. Yes, I got to sing along with most of my Petty favorites, but I do that whenever Jannah and I go to karaoke bars, so I left feeling a little empty.

The show was a too-real reminder that while his music lives on, Tom himself is sadly gone forever and it seems that no tribute band will ever make me feel the way Tom, Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench and the rest of the Heartbreakers did.

But, speaking of Tom Petty Radio, yours truly will be a guest DJ on the channel’s “The Last DJ” show, where Petty fans get to pick and introduce their five favorite songs by Petty, The Traveling Wilburys, etc.

Because he has such a legion of devoted fans, my “Last DJ” segment won’t air until early 2022, but I’ll give you a heads-up once that date is actually announced. 

RIP, Tom. We miss you.

Editorial: Looking Forward To Another Zoom Meeting With Rep. Driskell

Back in August 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and just a few months after the murder of George Floyd by now-convicted former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin, I organized a Zoom Town Hall meeting about racism and asked Dist. 63 State Rep. Fentrice Driskell (which includes all of New Tampa and some of Wesley Chapel )to co-host it with me. 

The Zoom meeting (photo, above) went exceedingly well, with about two dozen local residents participating, and a lot of great discussion on the specific subject of systemic racism. During the meeting, I promised to organize another Zoom and/or in-person meeting with the New Tampa community in the future.

Well, it’s been a crazy nine months since then, to be sure, but now, Rep. Driskell has invited me to co-host a Zoom Virtual Town Hall meeting with her on Wednesday, June 16, at 6 p.m., and I’m really looking forward to connecting again with her and even more residents of our local communities.

Since it is a Town Hall, anyone who registers to participate (at bit.ly/driskelltownhall, see ad below) can sign into the meeting to hear our State Representative discuss some of the bills that passed during the 2021 Legislative Session, including education, criminal justice reform, the environment, bills related to Covid-19, health care and the state budget. Rep. Driskell also will discuss the bills that she got passed during the session, including police reform and a bill that will create a task force to address the issue of abandoned African-American cemeteries throughout Florida.

We also plan some time during the Zoom meeting for participants to and ask questions about life in their community, from traffic to development to what the state legislature is doing to help improve life in our area.

And, because Rep. Driskell wants to be involved in all of the communities she serves in Dist. 63, whether you miss that first meeting or not, you can connect with both Rep. Driskell and our District 7 Tampa City Council member Luis Viera (see stories on pages 6 & 8 of this issue) at an in-person New Tampa Town Hall the following week — on Tuesday, June 22, 6 p.m., at Compton Park at Tampa Palms. 

As if that isn’t enough, Rep. Driskell also is hosting Virtual Office Hours on both Tuesday, May 25, noon-2 p.m. (the day this issue is certain to arrive in your mailbox, although it could arrive by May 24) and on Wednesday, July 7, also noon-2 p.m. To participate in either or both of these virtual office hours, email Lucile.Malone@MyFloridaHouse.gov or call (813) 936-0854.

As someone who has lived and/or worked in both New Tampa and Wesley Chapel since 1994, all I can say is that there have been very few state representatives — or elected officials in general, regardless of party affiliation — doing as much to be responsive to the needs of our communities as Rep. Driskell (or, of course, Councilman Viera).

My thanks go out to both of them.

No More Masks?

Even though Jannah and I have been fully vaccinated for some time, it took Gov. DeSantis’ repeal of all mask mandates in Florida for us to start going out in public without them.

Although it has been taking a while for us to get used to not having to wear our masks when we go out, I give Gov. DeSantis a lot of credit for taking the lead on this issue throughout the pandemic.

The Ever-Changing Face Of Our Neighborhood News Online Videos

Gary Nager

When I first started what was then called WCNT-TV (Wesley Chapel New Tampa Television) with a partner in 2016, my intent was to create something of a hyperlocal TV news station that would one day become a 24-hour “channel” featuring news and informational content solely about New Tampa and Wesley Chapel.

A couple of years later, not only had I taken over complete control of our online content from that former partner, we began focusing on short news and informational videos about the people, businesses and restaurants in our communities. That same year, as I was re-branding our online video content as NeighborhoodNewsOnline.net, with the help of a former producer, I applied for — and was stunned to receive — one of only 86 grants worldwide (and one of only 23 in the U.S.) from Google to expand that video content, as part of the online giant’s attempt to combat the growing proliferation of “fake news” online. 

I was told by Google that even though our Neighborhood News print editions were only about two tiny (but growing) markets, a big reason we received a grant was because we had been in the business of providing real news to and for the residents and businesses of these two small submarkets of the Tampa Bay area for 26 years.

And, that grant money from Google did help us expand our online presence from an average of one video release every two weeks to more than two releases each week of 2019.

Unfortunately, Google didn’t see fit to provide us with another grant for 2020 in order to keep that momentum going the following year, which then ended up also being the year that Covid-19 changed everybody’s business.

Thanks to a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan, however, I was able to retain and continue paying all of our employees, including videographer/video producer Charmaine George, but with most people not venturing out of their homes, and working mainly from home from March through much of the summer last year, it was harder for us to continue putting out the same amount of content and even harder to create and release content that people wanted to watch, despite having so much less to do outside.

Even so, we were still able to put out more than two video releases per week, with 74 total releases for 2020, which were viewed nearly 200,000 times, with a Facebook (search “Neighborhood News”) reach of more than 300,000, bringing our overall viewership to close to 2 million through our first five years.

 Our ten most-viewed videos of 2020 (all of which were viewed more than 5,000 times each, reaching an average of 12,000+ people each on Facebook) were primarily about new business and restaurant openings, especially Aldi, the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County (which had three of our top-10), The Grove, Aussie Grill, Main Event and Pasta di Guy.

Our pace for new video releases has slowed somewhat in 2021, and fewer of you have been watching them, although we also have been encouraged by the fact that our most-watched video ever was our exclusive sneak peek of the all-new Grove Theater (photo) in January, which has, to date, been viewed by more than 32,000 people with a Facebook reach of more than 53,000. We also have had decent viewership of videos about New Tampa’s new Fresh Kitchen and others.

To that end, our plan is to greatly expand our focus on dining and new business opening videos for the rest of 2021. So, if you or someone you know has a new business or one opening soon in either of our distribution areas, please email me at ads@ntneighborhoodnews.com.

Thanks for watching!

St. Patrick’s Day Means It’s Been One Full Year Of Covid-19

The photo of Jannah and me was taken on March 7, 2020, at a friend’s wedding, literally a week or so before the U.S. began to shut down because of the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

I also remember going to O’Brien’s Irish Pub in Wesley Chapel to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day 2020, and I was already uncomfortable talking too closely to the people we met and especially, with hugging anyone. No one was yet wearing masks — as there was some debate as to whether or not they were effective in preventing the spread of this then-new, still-largely-unknown illness — and I just felt like no one knew how close was too close to be talking to someone in those earliest days of the illness. 

Well, St. Patrick’s Day 2021 is now here, which means that the pandemic has been raging in this country for one full year. Thankfully, despite nearly 30 million confirmed U.S. cases and more than a half-million deaths, the number of new cases, hospitalizations and deaths seem to finally be subsiding a bit, thanks to ongoing mask-wearing and social distancing rules, as well as the introduction of millions of doses of three rushed-to-market vaccines. The good news — at least so far — is that those who have been able to receive the Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech or Johnson & Johnson/Janssen vaccines to date have been avoiding serious illness, hospitalizations and deaths, with minimal side effects for most.

I will admit that those who have been able to receive any of these vaccines once they became available has been a little mystifying to me — I thought it was supposed to be the elderly, true front-line workers in hospitals (doctors, nurses and anyone else with direct patient contact), firefighters and law enforcement officers who were supposed to be first in line to receive them, but I saw many people under age 65 on Facebook who didn’t fit into any of those categories bragging that they had received both doses of the vaccine before my mom was able to get her first dose of Moderna vaccine, which she finally did last week.

But, considering how new all of this is, and how crazy the lines have been at public heath locations just to get a Covid test, I am encouraged by the progress that has been made. I’m also encouraged by the fact that the vaccines all also appear to be effective against the different Covid-19 variants that have been popping up. 

I also am hopeful that Jannah and I — who are both under age 65 and in relatively good health — will be able to be included in the next group to be vaccinated, especially once teachers and everyone living or working in long-term care facilities have received theirs. My wife and I genuinely miss going out to crowded bars with live music, but we’ve spent precious few evenings out enjoying dinner and karaoke or to watch a Lightning game since this nightmare began.

 I feel fortunate that neither I nor any members of my immediate family have been touched personally by Covid, although at least one Neighborhood News employee did suffer for a few weeks with a relatively mild case. But thankfully, our employees have mostly been working from home and we wear masks whenever more than one of us are in the office together. 

Even so, how long Jannah and I will have to continue to wear masks when we go out to eat — something we’ve done far less of the last year, but have started to do a little more of late — remains to be seen. And, I also am concerned that the repeal of mask mandates by the governors of several states may be happening a little too soon, too. The U.S. is nowhere near “herd immunity” yet and I don’t have the same faith in people to wear masks without those mandates that those governors seem to have. 

So, while St. Patrick’s Day is one of the holidays I actually have traditionally enjoyed, it will forever be remembered, at least by me, as the holiday when the scourge of the early 21st century first hit home. Stay safe, my friends.

It’s Kind Of Awesome To Live In ‘Champa’ Bay These Days!

Tom Brady hoists the Lombardi Trophy after leading Tampa Bay to a Super Bowl victory.

When I first moved back to Florida in 1993, the Tampa Bay Lightning had just completed their first season in the National Hockey League — at the Expo Hall at the Florida State Fairgrounds in unincorporated Hillsborough County.

And, one of the reasons I moved to Florida from Westchester County, NY, was because Tampa Bay was rumored to be getting not just an expansion baseball franchise, but my beloved San Francisco Giants were supposed to be leaving Candlestick Park to come to our area and I wanted to publish a Giants magazine.

Gary Nager, Editorial

Well, as the saying goes, the best laid plans of mice and Giants often go astray, and the Giants never moved here, but the Nagers still did. Five years later, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays were finally born as a Major League Baseball expansion franchise.

And, when I moved here in 1993, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were simply awful.

After going 0-14 in their first year (1976), the Bucs made the playoffs for the first time in 1979, and two more times in 1981 and ‘82, but then went 15 years before their next postseason game, under second-year coach Tony Dungy. Their record during that span was a dismal 100-223, which means they won less than a third of their all-time games from their inception through my third year of owning the Neighborhood News. Even so, you’d never know it if you talked to any fan who was from any part of the Bay area. 

The Bucs’ fans were almost cult-like, despite their creamsicle-colored uniforms, long before Dungy became the coach. I remember being threatened by a bar owner in New Port Richey for suggesting that he turn his largest-screen TV off a Bucs preseason game. He told me, “We’re all Bucs fans here, son. If you don’t like it, I invite you and your family to leave.”

But oh, how the Tampa Bay area’s sports franchises have risen. In perhaps the hardest year for sports ever, as virtually everyone in the country now knows, the Tampa Bay Lightning won the 2020 Stanley Cup (the team’s second), the Tampa Bay Rays made it to the World Series for the second time and the Tampa Bay Bucs capped their 2020 season with a dominating 31-9 win over the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs the day before we went to press with this issue — the team’s second time hoisting the Vince Lombardi trophy (photo).

It historically hasn’t been an easy time rooting for the local major sports franchises, especially, this Covid-crazy year, but how rewarding has it been? 

Who would have thought that the Bolts would come back from the previous season’s devastating sweep at the hands of the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first round of the 2019 playoffs? Who would have thought that the Rays, with one of MLB’s lowest payrolls, would beat out the Red Sox, Yankees and defending American League champion Astros to advance to the World Series? And, who would have thought that the Bucs would go from being a 7-5 playoff pretender with a questionable defense and a finally-old-looking 43-year-old QB to reel off eight consecutive wins, including decisive victories over Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints, Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers and the seemingly unbeatable Pat Mahomes and the Chiefs? Out of nowhere, we won eight consecutive games with a top-level defense and Tom Brady looking like, well, the Brady who had won six Super Bowls with the Patriots.

Wow. If not for The Weekend’s worst-ever halftime performance and Covid forcing most local fans to stay away from the first-ever Super Bowl played and won by a team in its own stadium, Brady, head coach Bruce Arians, offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich and defensive coordinator Todd Bowles finished off an almost perfect game to give the GOAT his seventh win and fifth Super Bowl MVP award. 

Congrats to the health care heroes who got to attend the game for free. I salute you and your efforts to keep as many of us as possible alive during this plague even more than I salute the Bucs, the Bolts, the Rays and even MLS’s Tampa Bay Rowdies for providing the best-possible distractions during this most difficult year. Way to go, Champa Bay!