MIDTOWN JOURNAL: It’s the 11 th of October, and I’m being rushed, along with a photographer friend,to a VIP tent behind the Atlanta Pride Stage.
The rain is pouring, as it always seems to do during Pride in Atlanta. A major shower begins during my interview with the one man band epiphany Daniel Scoggins---locally famous as ‘Cousin Dan’.
We weren’t supposed to go back stage. I didn’t secure the passes in time, and it took some sweet finagling ---but the ever-charming Cousin Dan got us back to his dressing tent.
And there’s not much to it…a five foot table, three folding chairs. There’s something more famous than Dan that is hanging on the right top corner of his tent: his disco ball cod piece.
The cod piece used to contain a Casio mini keyboard. The old schtic involved looking down at his crotch a lot. Now, he’s free to gaze across the heads of an audience (there used to be no audience for his stuff).
That cod ‘piece-ano’ seems to have been replaced by a laptop. This frees the hands so Dan can play his guitar. The cod piece and sleeveless jean jacket have matching mirror shoulder pads.
This makes for a better act, and it’s coming-up next.
I bark-out a request for the photographer to snap a shot of the famous costume.
The photographer mumbles something about light, the lack thereof…
“Tell us about getting shot,” I say to Cousin Dan, who then begins to re-live that night in September when two men accosted him at about 2 a.m.
He had just left a 4th Ward club after a gig. “I didn’t say a thing to them,” says Dan.
The men fired guns, and Dan barely had a chance to get into his car. He started the auto and traveled down the street in reverse until he got to a safer area. “I knew I was shot. You wouldn’t have wanted to be in my car then. I was having a total freak-out.”
Dan lifts his shirt, revealing an entry and exit point on his right hip (and suddenly I’m content that I have love handles). Truly, Dan was lucky that the bullet didn’t graze one of his organs or an artery.
One month later, he’s playing a warm-up gig at the Atlanta Pride Festival.
Scoggins, who is straight,is quick to quip about his own Pride. “I’m proud to be alive,” he smiles.
Originally from Dallas, Texas, this Cousin Dan is quite the actor.
“I did some plays in school, but nothing major,” he says.
It helps to be good looking. He laughs when I ask if he practices his sheepish grins and goofy faces in front of the mirror. “Not really,” he laughs again “…I just know how the character would say the certain phrase, and he’s borrowing a lot of exaggeration to execute the lyrics.”
When I stab the comment that his video on YouTube called “Bomb” is tinged with Weird Al Yankovic-- -Cousin Dan shakes his head in agreement.
“Again, I just have fun with it. As you can see in the video,the character is a bit narcissistic.” He ignores his pretty girlfriend for the sake of science, yet the science he is studying seems to be the opposite sex.
I ask him why the videos are so crazy, and take a jab at some playful songs lacking in substance like 'B,B, Gun'.
“I have fun in the videos, and I always come up with more ideas. Since the shooting, I have changed my mind about the lyrics. I think things are going to be more serious, now,” Cousin Dan says.
“Tell us about the fans,” I say. I know he’s been swarmed by girls and guys alike.
“They have all been cool, really welcoming. Wow…I have fans now. It was strange at first.” His eyes twinkle.
The rain slows as I’m asking my last question, which concerns Dan’s trip and his long-term plans.
“I went to Puerto Rico, it went great” Cousin Dan has a confident smile. “I’ve got plans to be on the road in 2015.”
It’s early in the festival, and a small crowd of about 500 young adults are partying on Piedmont Park’s Great Lawn. They are unaware which band is playing next, they just want someone to continue playing. Cousin Dan arrives; and in a soft-to- loud synthesized swoon, the crowd is mesmerized.
I’d forgotten that he speaks through a synthesizer. Some of the metal chairs are rattling. “How you doing out there?” Dan sings the sentence. A digital rainbow background seems to rotate like an M.C.Escher drawing. Add Dan's handsome looks and---well there's the effect.
The crowd goes a bit crazy, whoops and clapping-- -then everyone seems entranced by the synthesized surrounding.
It’s loud, it’s a groovy beat, and Dan’s voice is right in tune. To some it doesn’t make a look of sense, but it’s beautiful and they dance along with him.
Dan is proud to be singing to us.
Cousin Dan is not only lucky to be alive, but he’s living proof that one should get back up and keep trying.
To follow the musician go to https://www.facebook.com/cousindanRULES .
---Ray Macon
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