Barat's Encounter with Slash

Shortly after this beautiful moment, I was propeled into health conscious living.

"Want to run?" my brother asked.

"Sure," I said.

5 miles later, I sat outside his apartment door. Very cozy. Each unit in a semi-circle around the pool. The neighbors come and go. All friendly. All in various professions associated with the media world. I get introduced to a few.

"This is my brother," Paiman says.

I am cordial. Hello's and goodbye's.

"She does commercials," my brother explains. "He sings in an acapella group."

"Cool," I say.

A couple hours later, we hook up with Sonny and Sudeep Mishra. The brothers are in town for a week. Sudeep runs a company in Bombay. Sonny runs a gypsy jazz trio in Seattle. We decide to hit Sunset Strip. We walk aimlessly, discussing music and moving possibilities.

"What do you think of L.A.?" I ask Sonny.

"It's cool," he says.

"Think you'll move here?"

"It's definitely a place I'll do business."

I don't push it. My decision is not based on his. Still, it would be nice to come here with a partner in crime. Rent would be a lot cheaper.

"I'm not planning a move anytime soon," he says.

I drop back to Sudeep behind me. He starts in on his buddy, Barat. Apparently, the guy is a huge metal freak. He hits vario¨s shows when he's not wheeling and deaing with Wall Street big wigs. I nearly shit my pants after I heard his latest experience with Velvet Revolver. Sudeep gave me the low down.

"It was fucking unbelievable. Barat goes to the Velvet Revolver concert with his girlfriend, and in the middle he's like, 'I've got to get closer,' so he leaves his girlfriend, this tiny Malaysian girl in the middle of a mosh pit, and starts busting his way through to the front. Somehow he makkes his way to the front, and tells the door man that he's there to see Duff.

'I need to see Duff,' he says.

'Who are you?' the doorman asks.

'I'm in the opening band,' he says."

"That works?" I say. "He looks like a rocker?"

"No, dude, that's why it's so funny. He's like 5 feet with glasses. Not a rocker at all."

"Yeah," Sonny pipes in, "he's the exact opposite of rock 'n' roll. He's one of the sweetest, little guys you'd ever meet."

"But," Sudeep adds, "They believe him. And they even tell him what door to knock on, when he gets in the hallway. So, here's Barat backstage walking around. He tries the first door, and no one answers. Then, further down the hall, he sees Scott Weiland through an open doorway. He stands there just staring into the door, until they give him a look, and shut the door."

"So is that it?" I ask.

"No, dude, listen! He goes to the next door, and just knocks. This girl answers. He uses the same line about how he's here to see Duff, and was part of the opening act. So the girl says, 'Hold on,' and closes the door to check it out. But Barat doesn't wait for confirmation, he just opens the door and walks in."

"Holy shit!"

"Yeah, he walks in there, and fucking Slash is there half naked. He's like, 'Who the fuck are you?!"' "

I gasp, "What does Barat say?"

"I kid you not, he just walks up to Slash and is like, 'You fucking changed the world, man! You changed the world!'

'Oh, man,' Slash says. 'What's it going to take to get you out of here?'

'I'm not going anywhere,' Barat says. 'You fucking changed the world!' And he's screaming this at the guy, because that's what he's like. Listen, I went with him to an STP show, and we were out in the middle of the grass, and he starts screaming at the top of his lungs, 'Look at him! Fucking look at him!' talking about Scott Weiland. Dude, Pirooz, he was fucking louder than the music."

"So what happened with Slash?"

"Barat says he'll go, but he has to give him something. So Slash goes and gets a candle and gives it to him."

"Yeah," Sonny agrees, "but he tells him that most people don't know he's a spiritual person, and then hands him the candle. Pretty cool, eh?"

"Fantastic story."

"Yeah, you know they were all probably talking about the guy," Sudeep says.

"They probably didn't think anything of it," Sonny says. "I mean, if you saw this guy you'd know what I'm talking about. I mean, he's the sweetest, most innocent guy you'd meet. That's probably why they were so nice."

"I just love that he screamed, 'You changed the world!' to Slash.