Alum Dan Hicks Remembered by Fellow Alum Ben Fong-Torres

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE -- 2016 began with a string of losses on the musical front, including Natalie Cole, Glenn Frey and Maurice White. Three with Bay Area connections also died: Paul Kantner and Signe Toly Anderson of the Jefferson Airplane, and Dan Hicks. I knew and very much liked all three. Because this is a radio column, I’ll spend a moment here with Dan. He’d done a little radio as a teenager in Santa Rosa and was a radio-TV-film major at San Francisco State in the early ’60s, before joining the culture-shifting band the Charlatans and then forming his own group, Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks. With his wry humor, self-mocking onstage patter and wickedly witty songs, including “How Can I Miss You When You Won’t Go Away,” he built a devoted audience.