“Knowledge is power,” he used to say. “ The one who knows is in control.”

I smile now because he never told the band where the gig was! “how much further is this gig?” we would ask and he’d always say “about four more miles”. It became one of the standard “Kevin-isms” we would quote for years when we didn’t have a clue.

The one who knows is in control. Kevin followed Jesus Christ. His favorite SCB tune, of course, was the one with the longest bass solo in it! “Get Ready” was a staple in the band’s set through six albums and eleven years. We closed the show with it even to the last concert. The song is a proclamation of the return of Christ and perhaps the mission statement of Sweet Comfort Band. Get Ready!

If our choice of food is any indication of whom we are, “Kev” was an all meat burrito with extra sauce and a big gulp. But mostly he was an evangelist above all. When I met him in 1972, he was doing a home bible study. I was a nominal student at Southern California College in Costa Mesa, and a clean cut run away from the east coast. He had an “afro” back then, and when coming to see me, stood out on the Christian campus like a hippie at the museum. The Jesus movement had caught fire in Southern California by then. I was singing solo at the circus tent they called Calvary Chapel. Monday night was a big bible study night there, maybe 3000 people, who could also hear the new Jesus music bands, Love Song, Children of the Day, Bill Sprouse, and Country Faith.

Bryan Duncan remembering Kevin Thomson, Bass player and founder of the Sweet Comfort Band, who died on May 30th 2010.