On Friday, April 24, he went to the doctor, who said his white-cell count was low, and decided to check him into St. Luke's Hospital. That night, from his hospital bed, in great discomfort, Singer ordered flowers to be delivered to his children's nanny, Sandra Quijas, with a note thanking her for all her help that day.
A battery of tests couldn't determine what was wrong with Singer, but by Tuesday, April 28, his condition had stabilized enough for doctors to release him from the hospital.
Singer left the hospital at 5:30 p.m., picked up his car at his doctor's office and stopped on his way home to get a gordita at Taco Bell. He arrived home by 6 p.m., leaving messages with his friends that he was okay. At 8 p.m., Tessitore got a call from a clearly shaken Singer who said, 'Julie, you and [her husband] Jeff need to come over right now.'"
When Tessitore and her husband arrived at Singer's house, he was curled up in a ball in his bedroom, shaking and sweating profusely. When he arrived at St. Luke's, he was dehydrated and had a fever of 103.
"I touched his lower back and he jumped up, so I knew that something was wrong with his kidneys," she says.
Around midnight his blood pressure started dropping and his system began collapsing. Meanwhile, a team of five doctors looked after him, all befuddled by the mysterious infection that had invaded his system.
"They believed that it might have been in his kidneys, and that's why his kidneys failed, and then it started to toxify the rest of his body," Tessitore says. He slipped into unconsciousness.
On Friday, May 1, there was sudden cause for optimism. "We were asking him questions, and we told him that if he could hear us to move his eyes, and his eyes moved back and forth," Tessitore says. "That was so, so wonderful. That was utter elation on that day. The mood in the hospital that day, my wedding day wasn't that happy. 'Cause we saw Brad. We knew that he could hear us and he was okay."
Whenever Singer's friends spoke to him, his blood pressure went up. When Tessitore and Mackin jokingly told him that they were standing in front of him with their tops off, the seemingly unconscious Singer's blood pressure soared.
By Saturday, it had become obvious that Singer's condition was actually worsening. Finally, on Sunday morning, May 3, he died.
Because of Singer's pre-existing lupus condition, and because lupus tends to lower one's immunity level, many people assumed that the disease played a part in his death, but doctors doubt that lupus was a cause. He simply died from a viral infection that defied detection, explanation or any standard treatment.
Though many people wonder how Singer's empire will be affected by his death, Zia Enterprises general manager Steve Wiley says that the operations of the company are carrying on as usual, and that the greatest effect on the business is the loss of Singer's presence.
The 33-year-old Wiley, who vaguely suggests a taller, darker-haired Greg Kinnear, had grown bored with the corporate atmosphere of Wherehouse Entertainment, when Singer called him five and a half years ago to talk business.
"We had what you could loosely call an interview," Wiley says. "We basically ended up bullshitting about music for a while. He was looking to see if I was a music nut, if I was cool or not. That was important to Brad sometimes."
The Zia Enterprises building--which also houses Impact, Epiphany and C.H.U.D., Singer's in-house graphics company--has the kind of informal vibe one would expect from a company run by Singer. Everyone wears tee shirts and shorts--including Wiley--and everyone has a healthy sense of the absurd.
What will outlive Singer is the ineffable way that he managed to find some 19- or 20-year-old who wasn't yet sure of his capabilities, and convince him he could accomplish something.
"He knew how to find people's grooves, and talk to them in a way that they'd want to be talked to," Bond says.
"I was completely in awe of him," says Sara Cina, booking agent at Long Wong's and the former manager of Dead Hot Workshop. "He was incredibly driven, and very motivating. Even without experience, he could see things in people, and he gave them a chance. He was very successful, but also wanting other people to be."
As Lanning puts it, "I think he kind of rooted for the underdog, which I really respected."
Contact Gilbert Garcia at his online address: ggarcia@newtimes.com
