Matt Pinfield Remains in Peril as Legal Actions Fly
DJ on NJ’s Rushmore of Rock suffered massive stroke
As rockers from the great state of New Jersey, our site always roots for Matt Pinfield. But never more than today.
As has been widely reported, the former host of 120 Minutes and Garden State rock and roll OG suffered a massive stroke on Jan. 6. He remains hospitalized and unable to communicate. According to the LA Times, his daughters Jessica and Maya — both frequent subjects of their adoring father’s social media posts — “said in legal documents filed this week in Los Angeles County Superior Court that her father, 63, is now ‘incompetent’ to make decisions about his health and finances.” They filed a petition last week to become conservator of their father and his estate, reportedly to prevent non-relatives from accessing his bank accounts.
The Rock & Roll Globe is not qualified to weigh in on Matt’s medical prognosis, and even less qualified to referee spats between parties who love someone no longer able to make decisions about his future. But we are qualified, having adored his work for four decades and having known him a bit personally over the years, to offer our heartfelt wishes for refuah shleimah. And if that’s not to be, at least to hope that there isn’t an Eric Carmen-like stand-off pitting romantic partner against children, all of whom are probably acting more out of grief than greed.
Pinfield’s rock and roll journey began as DJ and eventually music director at Rutgers station WRSU, back when the Court Tavern and The Melody Bar made New Brunswick must-stops for indie bands touring the East Coast.
He got a break when he appeared on MTV’s The Real World conducting an interview with Reigndance, whose vocalist was a TRW cast member. Suddenly, Matt’s trademark gravel voice and bald-headed riz made him the face of everything cool on MTV. He hosted 120 Minutes, the rare show that everyone knew was awesome even while it was airing, and his encyclopedic knowledge of indie rock was on full display. The network started branding him and launched shows around his personality, including Pinfield Presents and MattRock.
Matt parlayed that into his own major label deal, just as he done for many of the bands he had championed. In 2001 he became an A&R guy at Columbia Records, where he discovered and signed South Carolina’s Crossfade, which hit the charts with their prog metal hit “Cold.”
I remember noticing that a New Jersey band I love, Coach n Commando, had previously been incarnated differently as New Blood Revival. I mentioned to Pinfield that I’d seen him thanked on NBR’s liner notes. He told me that the leader of both bands, Matt Witte, “was great and I was an early supporter. He should have been huge.” He was right, as usual.
As of late, Pinfield had returned to his radio roots. At the time of his stroke, he was manning the afternoon drive shift at LA’s KCSN. The station posted a note to his fans in regards to Matt’s sudden disappearance from the airwaves: “The SoCal Sound’s legendary DJ Matt Pinfield will be taking a temporary leave of absence. We are fully supportive of Matt and hope to have his energetic knowledge of rock n’ roll back on the air soon.”
Along the way, Matt struggled. Sobriety was a challenge and he finally faced it head-on. He was grateful and public about that challenge — our site made a small donation to his recovery fund and he treated it like we personally rescued him from the clutches of addiction.
In late 2018, Matt was run over by a reckless driver in Hollywood. He shattered his leg on impact and banged his head when he landed.
Again, we’re not qualified to guess whether these setbacks contributed to the stroke that now threatens his life. But they couldn’t have helped.
Pinfield was a huge supporter of Material Issue, a band that our site has also bigly backed. Matt was interviewed for the documentary about the group that came out recently (stream it here, or do yourself and us a favor and buy it here). I remember interviewing Matt for the liner notes for Material Issue’s final record Telecommando Americano. It was released after the tragic suicide of that band’s lead singer, Jim Ellison. As I re-read today what Matt told me back in the mid 90s, I’m struck by how his fond recall of his friend might be a sad and fitting way this huge personality himself will be remembered by many.
“It was on my birthday of May 95′ in his hometown, Chicago.” Matt told me about Jim Ellison. “I was burned out from numerous long days and had no interest in celebrating. But Jimmy convinced me to hang out for a while and we ran around Chicago that night, and we ended up closing a little corner bar that stayed open for us until the morning. As always, we spent all our time talking about the records we loved and how they affected us, how songs could be the unconditional friends getting you through most of the shitty times in your life. I thought about some of the Material Issue songs that had that effect on me, like ‘The Very First Lie.’ It turned out to be a great birthday. I miss him.”
We miss you, too, Matt Pinfield. We are hoping for a miracle.
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Matt and his family are in my thoughts. Definitely an icon!