Paco 1971-2001

On October 20, 2001, 3:42 AM. Allan K. Foswell, better known as Paco was pronounced dead at New Hanover Memorial Hospital in Wilmington, NC. He is Survived by his wife Selin Foswell, two brothers Brian Foswell and Jake Foswell, and father Robert Foswell. Services will be held at Andrews Mortuary at 1617 Market St, Wilmington NC {(910)762-7788}. on Sunday October 28, 2001.

The proceeding was an excert from the obituaries of "Wilmington Morning Star" on Sunday October 21, 2001.

Some of us only remember him as Paco, the long haired hard drinking Witchazel bassist. He performed at bars around his home town of Lexington, KY and beyond. I however knew his offstage persona as well. I, as his friend, consider it an honor to have been asked to write this article. The following is unedited, as I believe Allan would have wished.

He began his musical aspirations early on in his middle school band playing trombone. Never really embracing the discipline required to learn music theory, he found rock bass much more comfortable. Paco went through life uninspired for years after high school. That would all change when he met up with an old high school classmate.

He formed Underdosed with Dave Ryles in the early 90's. Underdosed filled all four members with a sense of true direction. It was quickly apparent that they all wanted to be famous rock stars and Underdosed was the vehicle "Do or Die!". Sadly fame was not in the stars. The band was in constant turmoil due to the out of control drug use of three of its members. Eventually Underdosed fell apart. Underdosed did however serve to keep Paco out of prison and more importantly as a catalist into what we now know as Witchazel.

Dave and Paco went on to form Witchazel. Witchazel challenged and pushed its members to be better than before. Even through its constant trouble to keep a steady line up, Witchazel seemed to outperform its own expectations. The inconsistancy in the bands line up unfortunately proved too much for the its founding members.

After several attempts to keep a steady line up long enough to record a full length album failed, Paco became disenchanted. The very thing that gave him hope and purpose at a young age, now just seemed to frustrate him. Turning to alcohol no longer filled the void of a full time band.

He and his new bride decided to depart for North Carolina in September of 2001 with plans to form a family and retire his basses. 43 days later Paco was run over on Market St. in Wilmington, NC by a drunk driver.

~Billy Hadely~

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