Former Refreshments guitarist seeks redemption in the desert

By CHRIS HANSEN ORF
GET OUT

Shortly after Brian Blush was officially pronounced dead from a heroin overdose, he regained consciousness in a hospital, handcuffed to the railing of his bed.

“When you're a junkie,” a slimmed-down, healthy-looking Blush explains in between bites of a chimichanga at an east Mesa Mexican food joint, “you always have a court date for something, and I'd failed to appear for some court date or something.”

By the time he awoke, Blush had gone from being the lead guitarist in one of Tempe's most popular bands ever, The Refreshments, to a hopeless junkie who had ripped off his friends’ belongings and his bandmates’ musical equipment for drug money.

The man who'd had an assortment of Gibson Les Paul guitars and Matchless amps, which contributed to the unique tone that booms throughout The Refreshments’ two records for Mercury in the 1990s, eventually had nothing save for, literally, the clothes he was wearing when he overdosed.

“I was hoping the heroin would kill me — I hated myself for doing what I had done,” Blush says. “I really had a hard time living with myself after that. I just couldn't believe I'd let myself go there.

‘‘I let a lot of people down — myself, my bandmates, Refreshments fans, my fans, my wife, my friends — everybody. That's a hard concept, when you wake up and you realize you've basically stripped yourself of the things that actually matter — your family and friends, the people who love you.”

BACK IN VALLEY

Blush spent time in jail, a rehab center and seven years in Detroit after hitting rock bottom in October 1998. Living in the Motor City helped put him on the road to recovery — he moved in with his parents, got an assembly-line job and formed a new band, Luck & Trouble — and despite a few relapses along the way, Blush was finally able put his hard drug use in the past.

But he knew that in order to reconcile his behavior, he had to move back to the desert, the place where he'd made his bones as a musician and let everyone he loved down.

This spring, the stars lined up for his return.

“(Valley alternative band) The Reign Kings were looking for a guitar player, and they had just gotten a band house with a spare bedroom, so I said ‘What the hell, let's roll the dice and see what happens,’ and it's been great.”

Reign Kings leader Scott Briggs is not worried about Blush's ignominious track record with The Refreshments.

“Brian is a much different person than who he was eight years ago, and he's trying to let the past go and move on,” Briggs says. “I have no concerns with Brian, and he has been easy to work with.”

Blush was leery about moving back to a place where his name had gone from famous to infamous.

“At first I was nervous,” says Blush, who has not spoken to his former Refreshments bandmates in years. “But people I've met have been very kind. Of course, there's a contingent of people who are (expletive) at me — you can't lie and cheat and steal from people and not have them be (expletive) at you — and I don't blame them. I hurt a lot of people.”

‘BEST PERSON I CAN BE’

Blush, labeled by many avid Refreshments fans as the cause for the breakup of the band, says he's heard some stinging comments about him have been posted on the Internet since he has been back in town.
The guitarist has been very forthcoming about his problems and wants to put rumors to rest in person.

“I still to this day don't own a computer. The Internet for me ... I can't pay too much attention to it because I get easily hurt by negative stuff, you know?” Blush says. “I deserve a lot of it, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt.”

Blush knows he has a lot of work to do to make up for what he's done, but he's taking things head-on.

“I wanted to die for the things I'd done,” Blush says. “But one of the things that made me want to live was being able to make up for what I had done. I want to mend the fences that I tore down, and I want to focus my energies on being the best human being I can be.

‘‘It's extremely important to me to be honest with people, and I just hope people, even if they're (expletive) at me, judge me for what I am now and not what I was. I'm a very different person now, and all I can be is the best person I can be today.”