MOST HEARD "RADIO" VERSION:   I used to race motocross in junior high... I wasn't very good at it... after a while I became very good at "crashing" ... it became my nickname.  (not all true).  Actually, a General Manager in Madison, Wisconsin didn't want me to use ANDY as my radio handle (it was a male-oriented rock station) and challenged me to come up with a cool nickname... I used CRASH, because...

INSIDE TRUE VERSION:  Back in the late 80's, a young lady I was very attached to grew tired of our long distance relationship and called it off for good.  I was working part-time weekends deejaying at a four star hotel.  My father was running a car dealership in town and that weekend he was out of town deer hunting.  He loaned me his brand new Celica (one payment was made on it). After my shift at the club, I got sooooo drunk they made me leave.  You know where this is going: I ended up "crashing" into some guy's telephone pole in his yard... ran that car up the guywire--completely tore off the bottom -- totalling the vehicle.  All I got was a busted lip.  The insurance company and cops were "dumb-founded that I wasn't killed"!  One of my dad's salesman at the dealership immediately began hazing me.  Everytime I showed up or he'd call me at the radio station, saying "Hey Crash!... Is this Crash Kelly?"   My radio handle at the time was ANDY Kelly.  Pretty soon it caught on and everyone was calling me Crash.  Well, I never drove drunk again and I kept the name as a reminder. 

This cool thing was my dad didn't yell or make any fuss.   All he said was "I'm thankful you're alive.... a car is a thing, things can be replaced... you can't."  The song below is "Everything I Own" by David Gates of Bread. (Press Arrow Button). David wrote it after his father had died, in honor of his father's memory.  Here's the lyrics

...AND NOW, YOU KNOW... THE  REST OF THE STORY...

Me in '96 

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