We meet again my excitable friends! Right about now you might be looking at the photo above and thinking many things. I can assure you, this weeks fan spotlight is as interesting as the photo! Let’s not delay and get to it. It’s time to meet Mr. Patrick Hillin!
Let’s travel back in time to Patrick’s high school days. He and his “brother from another mother and fellow 311 junkie” Dan Millican were playing what they like to call the “sit up” game. “Basically, we had to sit up on a futon and the first one to lean back lost and got punched.” As they started this game, Dan put on the Grassroots album to listen to as they played. Patrick had never heard the CD before. After a few bong hits and a couple of songs in, he turned and looked at Dan. “I look over and I’m mesmerized because he knows every fucking lyric, even the SA lyrics, and he’s just steady sitting there singing and rapping along. This goes on for almost the entire CD, him lost in the music, me lost in his singing the music (remember the bong rips). All of a sudden he looks over at me and says, dude what the fuck! How long have you been sitting back?!” Patrick then got punched (a few times) and the two of them laughed for what he said felt like hours. That’s when Patrick says he became a real fan of 311.
Patrick’s show tally sits at 17, which includes 12 regular shows, 311 Day 2010 & 2014, and the third 311 cruise. It was hard to choose his favorite, however he said it hands down is the cruise. “Being able to be there with Jeremy Rawlings and Dan Millican, who are my brothers for LIFE, was incredible. Then of course there were three 311 shows, Rebelution, my introduction to Bad Rabbits, getting chocolate wasted in a banana suit off of non-stop soft serve ice cream, pizza sammys, no means yes and yes means anal, all of the wonderful people I met, free beer day, and of course the most amazing part: Getting to high five and take a picture with 311, dream come true. Every time I look at that picture I get pumped! It really captured the level of excitement running through all of our veins, truly amazing.”
“Omaha Stylee” is the song Patrick says he loves the most, but not for any sentimental reason or anything. “To me, that’s just raw 311, pure energy, throwing out MAD props to their (grass)roots and going hard in the process. That’s what it’s all about.” His favorite lyrics however come from “Freak Out” – “To all my friends, it’s not the end, the earth has not swallowed me yet.”
Some people live in one place their whole life. Others move around and Patrick is one of them. Born in Dallas, Texas, he lived there until he was 6, and then headed west. He has lived in Thousand Oaks, California, Tucson, Arizona, Washington, D.C., and then finally he returned back to his place of birth. If he had to pick one place that was his favorite stomping grounds, it would be Tucson. “Yeah it’s hot but there’s no humidity, the mountains and wildlife are amazing, tons of good golf, and monsoon season in the summer is fantastic. Every night in the summer, around the same time, the storm clouds come rolling in over the mountains and it POURS for about 2 hours with some kick ass lighting storms, and then it’s done. After that it’s nice and cool outside and the sweet smell of the desert makes you never want to go back inside. So yeah, Arizona was my favorite.”
To fund his 311 addiction, Patrick draws civil and structural plans for commercial construction projects. As he said, he gets paid to sit around and draw all day. “I have been fortunate enough to have my name on a lot of big projects in the greater DFW area. It’s pretty great to pour months of hard work into a project on paper and then a year later be driving down the road and see it constructed. Other than that it’s all the same old stuff: work hard to play hard, love everyone always, don’t be a dick.”
Patrick was asked what makes him unique, and he said he can’t think of anything. However something you may not know about him, which I believe makes him unique, is that his 4 front teeth are all fake as the result of a bike accident when he was 12. “I went right over the handle bars and face planted hahaha. I woke up in the hospital with one front tooth missing and now all four up front are fake.” Patricks guilty pleasure lately is something different that some of us (like me) would not be able to handle. “Lately, for whatever reason, I’ve been eating a lot of sardines, right out of the can. I have no clue why I ever started doing this, but it’s been going on for about 3 weeks now and I can’t get enough. Sardines.”
Patrick would like to give a shout out to 311 and deliver this message to them: “You guys are my musical heroes, I fucking love you, but will you please play some Skynard?”
As for his message to all of you in the universe of 311 fandom:
“You look good out there **slaps butt** good game, keep that shit up.”
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Thank you, thank you, thank you for reading again folks. Without you, I would be nothing. Each and every spotlight thanks you as well! Leave some love in the comments if you feel inclined. Until next time…”Life’s a bowl of punch, go ahead and spike it.”
Much love! -The Runt