I first met Margaret at St. David’s church. I would go to church and come out to get coffee and cream, and she would be there, like she was supposed to be there. Right away I knew she was one of the nicest people I’d ever met.
I liked it a lot when she started writing for the Austin Sun. I kept encouraging her to stay with it, and I’d look forward to her writing when the Chronicle started and she went there. It was fun when they started the Austin Music Awards and Margaret did so much to make it all happen. I enjoyed all of them and have great memories of going to them and playing.
She wrote so much during all her years at the Chronicle. She had such a personal and passionate way of writing about music. I also liked seeing if she had written about me or my life or what I was doing. She had a different way of looking at things, and the way she wrote made the music come alive, like the musicians were right there with me. She has a gift not every writer has.
I always appreciated her, for more than 40 years now, back to the Seventies when she started at the Sun. Austin was different then, more like a little town, and we all got to know each other real quick. That doesn’t happen for everybody anymore, but I’m so glad it happened for us. Please tell Margaret I’m going to write her a letter. A letter to her and her family.
Roky Erickson
A version of this article appeared in print on Jun 30, 2017 with the headline: Roky Erickson
This article appears in June 30 • 2017.