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Ashland man gets rock-star treatment Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Bass player Steven Spring, who is battling a rare form of cancer, is going on an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii to see his favorite funk band, Tower of Power - courtesy of the band and its host hotel, the Four Seasons. By BUFFY POLLOCK Phoenix resident Peter Spring asked members of his son Steven's favorite funk band, Tower of Power, for a little bit of their time. Steven, a 21-year-old bass player from Ashland, is fighting a rare bone cancer known as Digital Papillary Adenocarcinoma. Would the band members, he wondered, give his son a half-hour of their company? A few pictures? Perhaps even a chance to sit in with the band? Spring never dreamed Tower of Power would respond with an all-expenses-paid trip for both of them to its concert Saturday on Maui. Peter and Steven leave today for Hawaii, the culmination of a journey that began last summer when the two were on their way to Portland for Steven's radiation treatments. They decided to catch the Tower of Power concert in Roseburg on the way. Steven is fighting the rare bone cancer for the third time in eight years. The disease started in his toe when he was 13, returned at age 15, was detected again a year ago in his shoulder and began spreading throughout his body. Peter said that during the Roseburg concert, he wanted to do something special for his son, "a tremendous bass player who loves music." Peter hoped to get his son backstage to meet the band. "I couldn't even get past the local security people," he recalled. But he didn't give up. When he returned home, he e-mailed the band, explaining his son's condition and how big a fan he was. Peter asked the band to consider allowing Steven to sit in for a practice. When the e-mail went unanswered, Peter's fianc�e, Jennifer Schloming, stepped in. Schloming knew an entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles who had lost a child to tragedy and who, coincidentally, knew the band's manager, Michelle Zarin. After a few phone calls, the trip was sealed. Schloming will be joining the Springs on their trip. They'll stay at the Four Seasons resort hotel, where they will be treated "just like band members for three days," said Zarin. "They'll get transported with the band, have the same food allowance, everything the band gets, they get," she said. "It's not something we've ever done. My agent called me up and said he knows someone, who knows someone, who knows this kid who's very sick. "I turned the page on my calendar and there it was. We had a benefit we were doing for cancer victims. It was just meant to be. I felt like an opportunity to bless someone had just been dropped in my lap." Zarin said the opportunity to help someone in Oregon made the blessing even more complete. "About a year ago, our bass player Rocko was in a hospital in Bend, Oregon, and was very sick. He almost died. He had no insurance but the people in Bend were so terrific to him. The doctors told him not to worry about anything, that he needed to be taken care of. You just don't find people like that anymore. They were so amazing. So Oregon has been in the back of my mind since last summer," she said. David Reaves, manager of the Four Seasons, which is hosting the event, is supplying the airfare and rooms because of another connection. The hotel chain's owner, based in Toronto, lost a son to cancer. Spring said it was touching how everyone involved in helping were able to understand the huge battle his son was fighting. "So many people that have helped us have been touched by tragedy themselves. They know how important something like this is for someone fighting such a serious battle," said Peter. "The manager and agent from the booking company are even giving up their tickets so we can go." Steven, who admitted "off-the-wall surprises" were "typical of his dad," said he couldn't wait to fly out of Medford. "The bass player called and asked what songs I knew and told me to bring my bass," Steven said. "The closer it gets, the more excited I get about it." Buffy Pollock is a free-lance writer living in Medford. E-mail her at [email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.