Dear Friends,

     This is Ray Amico and I'm writing to you to talk about a friend of ours, a legend in the music business and someone who is going through an extremely tough time right now.

     Gordon "Gungi" Paterson is a legendary figure in our industry, having been a highly respected engineer, tour and production manager who has worked with almost everyone in the business.  From his early days in the UK with acts such as Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Deep Purple, he was a mainstay of the 80's touring scene with such bands as Megadeth and Steve Vai, and has continued through the 90's and 2000's with bands such as Live, A Perfect Circle, System Of A Down, Tears For Fears and most recently Fiona Apple.  Gungi's easily recognizable physical stature is only overshadowed by his immense heart, personality and positive attitude.

     As we were touring together this summer, Gungi was diagnosed with cancer - a large lump was discovered in and around the lymph nodes in his neck.  The immediate diagnosis was that this was a "secondary" cancer and that they had not been able to determine the primary.  The recommended course of action at the time was to take a biopsy of the cancer - a method that in other circumstances has actually SPREAD cancerous cells.   Armed with a healthy dose of cynicism about standardized recommendations of treatment, and after tons of tireless research into alternatives, Gungi was determined not to simply fall in line and allow a blunt, invasive and potentially worsening treatment to happen without doing everything he could do first, holistically. 

     At that time he took a very aggressive and naturalistic approach that has worked in many other documented cases - Gungi has been traveling around the world in the past 6 months undergoing radical treatments with respected independent health care givers and has made an incredible change in his lifestyle.  Touring together in Japan only 2 months after his original diagnosis, it was amazing to watch the transformation that he has gone through, and by every gauge and test he has had since then, he's been heading in a positive direction, approaching a 0% +/- balance between the growth of the cancer, the levels of toxins, healthy cells, etc. in his body.  The developments since then have been promising and Gungi in his own way and time has been spreading the news about his progress.

     The costs incurred by Gungi and his family to accomplish this have been astronomical.  With the help of friends Tracy Williams and Stew Wilson I would like to do something to help this great man by mobilizing people from all over the world who love Gungi as much as we do - and hope that we can make a great contribution to his journey.

     In a very respectful way we would like to announce the initialization of the "FRIENDS OF GUNGI " - a Paypal depository that welcomes any contributions in his name.

It is very easy to help, simply visit:

www.friendsofgungi.com

     Please make whatever contribution you can.  The money is accessible only by Gungi and his family and will go towards anything that can help lessen the costs and burdens on his family - so that he can keep his focus on treatments and recovery.

     From myself and everyone involved - thank you for your help and kindness.  Please keep this proud and great man in your thoughts and prayers as he continues his hard work and treatment.  Pass this along to anyone that you can think of that would like to help.   I would personally like to extend my gratitude to the doctors, health care givers and all the people that have been working with him who are nothing less than miracle workers.  Also i would like to acknowledge the great contribution of Michael Pilmer who worked so hard in helping us create, realize and maintain this website. 

Peace and Love,

Raymond Amico
Tour and Production Manager
ratours@aol.com