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The bitter feud between the surviving members of the band Boston exploded anew yesterday with band founder Tom Scholz firing off a letter to the ex-wife of singer Brad Delp demanding she stop making “statements in which you place any blame whatsoever” on Scholz for Delp’s suicide.
 Tom Scholz has penned a letter to Brad Delp’s ex asking her to lay off on statements of blame.
Micki Delp told the Herald that her ex-husband Brad, who committed suicide two weeks ago in the bathroom of his New Hampshire home, was under a great deal of pressure personally and professionally. However, Micki Delp never blamed Scholz for his death.
She said Delp was upset over the fact his friend and band mate Fran Cosmo had been dropped from Boston’s summer tour. But Scholz, the MIT-educated engineer who founded the band in 1976, said the decision to drop Cosmo was not final and that Delp was not troubled over the matter. Cosmo’s son Anthony, however, was scratched from the tour.
“The decision to rehearse without the Cosmos was a group decision,” Scholz said in a statement to the Herald. “Brad never expressed unhappiness with that decision . . . and took an active part in arranging the vocals for five people, not seven.”
Yesterday, Scholz told the Associated Press that Delp was his“closest friend and collaborator in music for over 35 years. He said he was crushed by Delp’s suicide and the fact that he was not invited to his funeral and feels he is being unfairly blamed for Delp’s suicide.
“It went from devastating on the initial phone call to an absolute nightmare,” Scholz told the AP in a tearful telephone interview.
Delp died March 9 after he sealed himself inside a bathroom in his Atkinson, N.H., home, lit two charcoal grills and committed suicide via carbon monoxide poisoning.
“Mr. Brad Delp. J’ai une ame solitaire. I am a lonely soul,” said one of several suicide notes he left for his family and fiance, Pamela Sullivan. “I take complete and sole responsibility for my present situation.” The note also included instructions on how to contact Sullivan and how to find his cat, Floppy.
Delp joined Boston in the mid-1970s and sang two of its biggest hits, “More than a Feeling” and “Long Time.” But the group had an ugly breakup more than 20 years ago and Delp was caught in the middle. He continued to work with Scholz and Boston but also gigged with Barry Goudreau, Fran Sheehan and Sib Hashian, former members of the band who had a fierce falling out with Scholz in the early ’80s.
As a result, Delp was constantly caught in the middle of the warring factions. The situation was complicated by the fact that Delp’s ex-wife, Micki, is the sister of Goudreau’s wife, Connie.
Micki Delp could not be reached for comment yesterday, but Connie Goudreau said the family would have no further comment.
“Nothing we can say will bring him back,” Goudreau said.
By Gayle Fee
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Boston Herald
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