Eugene weekly., July 03, 2008, Page 21, Image 21

In introducing himself as Cipollina’s son to musicians,
Roberts says he would often witness a strong response of awe and respect in his audience.
John and his sister Antonia.
perhaps Roberts wasn’t exactly who
he claimed to be.
“The only Michael Cipollina I
know of is John’s twin sister,” says
Gravenites in an email to Biondi.
“So now we got all this happening,
and I’m starting to panic,” Biondi
says. “I’m doing business with
some very respectable business
people, and here I’ve told them he
was the son of John Cipollina. I’m
seeing red at this point. We gotta
stop this guy.”
What particularly galls Biondi,
beyond the fact that he was conned,
is that Roberts is “casting a bad
light on the name” of Cipollina,
“one of our country’s fi nest guitar
players.” Beyond that is the ethical
consideration that Roberts’ “business
endeavors haven’t been forthright,”
a fact that he hopes doesn’t hurt the
cause of MEMA.
“He is such a wanna-be,” Biondi
says about Roberts. “His ego is
so massive. I thought I had a bad
ego. This guy should coach the ego
Olympic team.”
For Biondi, there’s a lesson to be
learned in Roberts’ public outing.
“If you bust a guy stealing a car
and he knows he’s going to lose a
foot, this will send the word to other
people.”
Roberts still has both his feet,
but the losses he’s suffered since
word has got out recently about
his true identity — and beyond
any question of justice — have
left him devastated. He’s resigned his
position at KSOW, where he hosted the
public station’s popular “Sounds of San
Francisco” program. For the record, he
chalks his quitting up to his displeasure
with the station’s artistic and business
direction, and says it’s only coincident with
recent revelations. Beyond that, however,
is the existential crisis of having torn away
a mask that has been in place for going on
two decades. Roberts’ current situation
is not less tragic for being self-infl icted.
When asked what he plans to do now, he
responds abruptly: “Move.”
And, if the abstract
outlines of his history can
be traced and analyzed for
motive, ultimately it is only
Roberts himself who can
provide clues to the deep
psychology of his choices.
The question remains:
Why pretend to be Michael
Cipollina?
In part, he ascribes his
long-ago decision to assume
the Cipollina guise as a
“sort of currency” giving
him access to the sometimes
forbidding inside world of
musicians. Roberts says that,
in introducing himself as
Cipollina’s son to musicians,
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John Cipollina
ALAN BLAUSTEIN
to the grocery store. “I wish I could prove
this, but he [Cipollina] always said if he
had a kid, he’d want it to be me.”
Antonia Cipollina, John’s sister, might
have something to say about that. She
numbers herself among the friends, family
and business associates stung by Roberts’
longstanding deception, no matter what his
reasons might be. Antonia, a classical piano
teacher and lifelong Bay Area resident, says
that years back she heard from a friend in
Eugene that Roberts had “decided he was
going to become John’s son,” a claim that
she is absolutely certain contains not one
scintilla of logical or biological truth.
“I lived with my brother,” Antonia says.
“I took care of my brother. There’s no
way. John did not have children. Period.”
What hurts her most is the damage
Roberts’ claim has infl icted on her family
and her brother’s reputation. “John was just
a laid back, wonderful player who doesn’t
deserve this,” Antonia says, adding that
she’s “shocked” Roberts has gotten away
with it for so long. “It’s time to stop, and I
think he knows it’s time to stop.”
Indeed, among the actions put in motion
that have convinced Roberts fi nally to
“stop” was a “to whom it may concern”
letter sent by Antonia to local saxophonist
Paul Biondi. In the notarized letter, dated
April 19 of this year, she writes that “many
a musician in Marin County knows the
truth about Kenny’s desire to gain jobs and
notariaty [sic] by using a false identity; in
other words USING JOHN! ... My family is
appalled by his sheer nerve and disrespect
of a wonderful man and brother.” Strong
words, to be sure, and ones that seemed to
have cut Biondi to the quick.
One of the founding members of
Musicians Emergency Medical Association
(memafund.org), a local nonprofi t that
provides medical help for uninsured
musicians, Biondi was in the process of
organizing a fundraising concert in Cottage
Grove when a sponsor put him in touch
with Michael, “son of John Cipollina.”
Through a series of conversations and
coincidences — involving such people as
guitarist Nick Gravenites, who played with
Cipollina, and one of Cipollina’s former
roadies — it began to come to light that
he would often witness a strong response
of awe and respect in his audience. “When
they thought that I was his son, their eyes
would light up,” he says with enthusiasm.
“Maybe I went under cover.”
There was also his desire, however
minimal or modest, to keep Cipollina’s
name alive in popular culture. In using the
persona of Michael Cipollina on KSOW
and in other venues, Roberts feels he was
able to represent a moment in history
threatened by the general amnesia of
modern sound-byte culture, where today’s
big news is tomorrow’s black hole of
forgetting. That’s how strongly he feels
about Cipollina and the entire music scene
he was part of. “All I was trying to do was
keep the candle lit,” he says. “I do not see
the family doing anything to keep that
fl ame lit.”
On a darker and more personal level,
there are the facts of Roberts’ upbringing
as well as the circumstances surrounding
John Cipollina’s death. “He was more of
a father than my real father,” he says of
Cipollina, adding that the guitarist, unlike
his actual father (who died in 1974), would
open up to him emotionally. “He treated
me so well. Once someone like that is in
your life, it doesn’t leave you.”
Roberts, for reasons not entirely clear
to him, was barred from participating in
Cipollina’s wake; he does admit to being
pretty messed up over his friend’s death,
and there were allegations by the family that
he had stolen some of Cipollina’s equipment
— though charges were never pressed and
Roberts rejects the idea as “ridiculous.”
At any rate, this banishment deeply hurt
him, especially as he is fond of the entire
Cipollina family. “I didn’t have a chance to
tell my side of the story to them,” he says.
“I have no family left on the planet,”
Roberts adds. “I have nobody.”
He maintains he never fi nancially
profi ted from Cipollina’s name, but Roberts
says he regrets the pain he’s infl icted,
especially on the Cipollina family. “I do
feel bad about some things,” he says. “I
fooled some people.”
In the end, however, Roberts may feel
most hurt by the opportunities he’s now
lost, including the opportunity to share his
love of music through his radio program.
He claims that when he fi rst decided to start
posing as Cipollina’s son, he never thought
it would amount to much more than a good
chance to share a story or gain access to
a concert or two. Recently, however, he
has had offers to syndicate his radio show
— offers he’s rejected because, legally,
he knew he couldn’t present himself as
someone he is not.
“I never thought these avenues would
bloom into that,” Roberts says. “If
anything, there’s my penance.”
ew
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