Alex, don't know if you saw my Nasser story from my thread at the top of the page. Any way here it is.
On tour with Nasser late 90s.
Nasser was a great guest and very funny even if it was at the expense of everyone else. He hung shit on just about every other pro and although it could seem he was full of hate, a lot of it was tongue in cheek. He would would tell the most incredible and unbelievable stories of the other pros. Sometimes I think he would just see how far he could go before you knew he was bullshitting.
He also had a kind side that he didn't like anyone to see. We went to this restaurant on Sydney Road one night, it was Nepalese from memory and a family was working very hard to keep the doors open. They had the Dad cooking, the Mum serving and a few little kids out the back on broken furniture and on the floor watching a tiny little TV. You could see they were doing it hard and basically had nothing. When we were leaving Nasser said he had forgotten something and went back inside. I watched through the window as he handed over a couple of hundred bucks to the Mum. He came outside and never said a word about it. I thought that showed a lot of class.
Another time in a different restaurant, much more upmarket, we got really bad service. One of us complained when the food came out cold or undercooked or something. Nasser quickly paid the bill and said we are leaving, convinced that chefs spit in your food if ever you complain. With a dead pan, straight face, he warned me to always leave a restaurant in this situation, no exceptions.
On one tour, we had had quite a few bottles of beer on the last night, we had an early start and I dropped him off at the hotel late in the night. After a few hours I returned to get him to the airport. I was exhausted, hungover and just made it out of bed. There he was as fresh as could be, no hangover, all packed up and waiting at the front. When we got to the airport he handed me a big envelope full of 8 X 10 pictures that he had been selling on the tour. He had stayed up and signed every one of them, maybe 50-60. Some he even had left a message like, "Train Hard ............. Your friend, Nasser" leaving blank spaces for their names. When I asked him what they were for, he said "please give them out to the fans that coould not afford to come to the show"
He could be cutting with his opinions and stories but then had this kindness that I have seldom seen.
RIP Nasser.
