I just found out that My Ka'au Crater Boys partner Ernie Cruz Jr. died today at Sandy's. I am totally shocked. Although towards the ending of Ka'au, We both didn't agree on certain things and went Our separate ways, I will always be thankful to Ernie for letting Me play music with Him. He started everything. Ernie was doing a solo gig at Moose's University when I saw Him one day at Ala Moana and I asked Ernie if I could gig with Him. He said yeah come to Moose's on Friday night. I showed up that Friday night and thats how Ka'au Crater Boys got started. Me and Ernie go way back to small kid days. We both lived in Palolo Housing. I could step out of My back door and be looking at Ernie's front door. After high school We started playing Music as ET. We also went to Japan for 6 months as part of a Polynesian show with 4 Male Musicians (Fire Knife) and 5 Female Dancers. We had good fun in Japan. We used to go surfing together a lot when We were doing the Ka'au. One thing I can truly say is that Ernie was definitely one of the best Singers of all time in Hawaiian Music Industry. I used to tell Him all the time that He's the best Singer in Hawaii. The one thing I will always admire about Ernie is even though Our Ka'au Crater Boys music took off, I never did see Him go around bragging or acting like We all that. He was always humble. One day We were cruising at the beach and We heard Still The One on the radio and I told the guy with the radio Hey guess Who's that singing, I said "thats Him" (pointing to Ernie). The guy said "Not". Ernie told the Guy "No believe Him" (pointing to Me). I thought Ernie's humbleness was pretty awesome. Anyway the picking part came on and Ernie told the Guy, guess Who's that playing the Ukulele? Ernie told the Guy "thats Him" (Pointing at Me). After seeing how humble ernie was, I had to do the same. I told the Guy "No believe Him" (pointing at Ernie). Ernie is the one who taught Me how to be humble and no go around bragging. I took that to heart. I thank you Braddah Ernie for the fun times We had. Love You Braddah Ernie
