Losing a friend is always hard.

It was 6 years ago today (12/12/2017) that we lost one of our dearest, Pat Dinizio from The Smithereens.

Pat was born in Plainfield New Jersey and never strayed too far from his New Jersey roots. He was a fixture at WDHA throughout the years. He would sometimes just show up in our parking lot with his guitar- it was awesome!

The Smithereens gave us some of the absolute coolest power, rock, pop tunes EVER- and Pat’s sensibility for writing incredible lyrics and 3-minute masterpieces influenced generations of rockers. So underrated and often imitated and certainly one of the greatest New Jersey bands ever.

I loved having him on the show, hanging , talking about his love of Black Sabbath, The Beatles and Buddy Holly and of course with his wild personality (he even ran for office as part of the Libertarian Party years back) I spent a lot of time just laughing with him. We all did. Pat was one of a kind.

Pat and Jim Monaghan shared a special bond too, as not only did he stop by the WDHA Morning Jolt and Jim joined him in song, but Jim also jumped on stage with Pat and the band at times for a Jersey Jam session.

CANT FORGET: Pat DiNizio and Jim Monaghan Write A Song Live On the Air

I’ll never forget when he filmed portions of his movie “King Leisure” here at WDHA and it was hysterical. He took over the station. That was Pat, with a personality that was bigger than life and one of the most unique voices ever. No one could deliver a song like Pat.

As we remember him on this day, I grabbed a few of our personal photos and a few performances from the WDHA Studio from 2004.

We miss you friend, and your voice and legacy will always be carried on with WDHA The Rock Of New Jersey.

Rest Easy Pat.

Smithereens Official Site