Michael Knust Scrapbook page 2 @ thepsychedelicguitar.com

A blue vinyl promotional copy of Fever Tree's most famous song, 1967.

"...It was an A note that I'd get go down to a G and was pushin' it up to the A and it kept feedin' back and feedin' back, and the second take of "San Francisco Girls" started rolling, which is the slow part again. It sounded so cool that I did it through the slow part, and everyone in the control room is like "Yeah, THIS is pretty cool"...

Michael sitting in with The Breakers
The Prickly Pear, New Braunfels TX May 5, 2002

An old promo 8x10 autographed in October of 2002.

Dear Scott --

Thank you for the wonderful memorial tribute and interview with Michael Knust.
Fever Tree was the album my fiancé and I listened to all the summer of 1968
before he left for Vietnam. We loved it so much: would come home from classes
at UH, start dinner, and put Fever Tree on the stereo - every single day.

No other album has meant so much to me, and it has become a poignant soundtrack
to my own life. My fiancé was killed in action the following summer, sacrificing his
life to save the lives of his men near Chu Lai - winning the Bronze Star for his valor,
but leaving me heartbroken the rest of my life. All I have left of him are my
memories, photos, and Fever Tree, which I have a CD of now since our 33-year-old
vinyl is badly scratched after decades of listening to it. When I slip the CD into
the player, with the first strains, the room evaporates, and I am back in our
apartment on Yupon, seeing my beloved again as Fever Tree pulls that beautiful
grin across his face.

I like to think Michael Knust, one of the greatest rock guitarists of the sixties, is
playing now for his greatest fan: Michael Alan McAninch, USMC, fellow
Houstonian, and American Hero. May God bless Michael Knust for the joy he
gave us and for the comfort Fever Tree provided the rest of my life.

Thank you again,
Joan McAninch Samuelson
Houston, TX

Joan's cyberspace memorial to Marine McAninch is at www.lettershome.net.
Fever Tree is mentioned on the "Letters" page. Please go by and pay your respects.
Joan - words cannot express my respects for your sorrow or my gratitude for your
sharing these precious memories with the fans, friends & family of Michael Knust.
~The Webmaster

"The Legend", Michael Knust with friend Kim Dupre' in July of 2000.

"...And that song went to number one on my graduation day from high school. There were no FM radios, it was all AM, and driving to my graduation they have the top ten countdown whatever thing, you know... "And the number one song, Fever Tree 'Girl Don't Push Me' " and I was just like "Wow"...

Knightsnakes song list from promotional folder.

*******

It's great to read Michael's remembrance of "Fever Tree". I must have seen them 50 times or so. They played at a couple of different venues in the Beaumont area on a regular basis.

One very minor correction in Michael's story is that the hotel venue was not the Driscoll. The Driscoll is located in downtown Austin. There was a ballroom in Hotel Beaumont called "The Rose Room" where Fever Tree played several gigs. There was also a club owned by a local DJ by the name of Al Caldwell. It was in an old warehouse in downtown Beaumont near the port. It was originally called the V.I.P. but was later changed to "The Box". Five bucks to get in and no booze allowed. It was basically a teen club but when Fever Tree played it was packed with all age groups.

I've seen a million bands in my life but very few as tight as Fever Tree. They pretty much played flawless shows every time I saw them. I was in the crowd the night the UNI guy was there to hear them.

After I moved to Lake Charles, I saw them at a venue on the then deserted Chenault Air force base. It was in an old barracks building and was called "The Puppy Pen". I guess that was the last place I saw them. At the last gig I attended Rob had left the group and the excitement had pretty much gone out of their performances.

At the time FT was in their prime, I was singing with a band from the Beaumont area. We pretty much ripped off everything they did. Since I have a naturally scratchy singing voice it was perfect for us. So Dennis, if you read this.. thanks for the vocal lessons.

One night we received a call from Al Caldwell asking us if we'd like to open for one of the bands at the Rose Room. This was considered a great opportunity because EVERYONE went there. He told us we'd be opening for Fever Tree. Needless to say we were too intimidated to take the gig. Besides we couldn't do a gig over 5 minutes long without playing some Fever Tree stuff.

In Dennis's letter he mentioned that each member of the group was pretty much irreplaceable and that is very true. They deserved much more fame than they achieved but left us with four quality albums.

*******

A cassette J-card from Michael's "Special Forces" band.
Red lips and Frankenstein stitches by some unknown hand...

Response cards, September 2003.

My brother and I were deeply saddened... we knew him growing up in our neighborhood
in Spring Branch area of Houston. We lived across the street from the Knust's, played
with most of their children as kids, including Mike: many neighborhood football and
basketball games and all the other things kids do (used to do?).

I was 2 years younger than Mike but was tackled by him many times in the football
games - always afraid I was going to get hit too hard (he was no wimp in those days)
but never did as he was quite gentle with me on purpose I guess. It was all in good fun,
and provides some of the cherished memories of our childhood. Another memory is that
Mike made a go-kart in his father's machine shop one summer, then a year or so later
when he had replaced it with a homemade mini-bike, sold it to me for $10. I added my
own engine and one wheel and we had many, many hours of fun with that thing. One
time I raced it against another guy at the high school who also had a homemade go-kart.
Mike happened to be there and was so proud when I won the race.

Once I was a freshman and sophomore at Spring Branch High School, Mike was getting
a bit famous, but always remembered who I was by name and never seemed "stuck up"
when I would talk to him at Houston-area concerts and such. I was the envy of my friends
of course when that would happen. I have many memories of him driving down the street
in his Chevy Impala, probably going to and from guitar lessons he was teaching.

We all got away to college and on with our adult lives after that, and we never tried to
keep up with any of the Knust's. It is very interesting to read the information on your
website about Mike, although once again quite disheartening and tragic of course.