Lonny Heckman, A life of Music and Howard Stern

This blog written by superfan Martin White:

September 26, 2007 was just another day for most Stern fans, Artie was
back after being out for 2 days, Howard was talking about Dancing With
the Stars, and Steve-O came in for a visit and Jerry Rice was due in
next; but for one Sternfan it was the greatest day in his short,
painful life. Lonny Heckman had battled diabetes the entirety of his
38 years and kidney failure filled his last years with increasing pain
and misery. But on this Wednesday, all the pain and heartache of
failing health took a back seat to Lonny’s favorite show when Howard
Stern played Lonny’s ode to Beth Ostrosky named “When I See Beth
Smiling”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzzMqi3V1HA

Howard was touched by the sweetness and sincerity of the song written
for his fiance. He even suggested having Lonny sing it after trying to
sing it himself. Lonny, on the phone with his hero, said he had no
desire to sing it saying his voice was far from pleasing. The show
moved but for Lonny it was a moment he’d remember for the rest of his
life.

Over the course of the next month, Fred would occasionally drop the
song in but on October 24th, 2007 Lonny reached another pinnacle in
his career when two of his musical inspirations, Jack Blades and Tommy
Shaw came in to the studio and played his song with an original verse
they had written themselves. Lonny was moved by that and by
Shaw/Blades extending an offer to have Lonny at the Allentown PA show
on 11/26/2007. Lonny loved their rendition -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCiJVY5BAdY and immediately made plans
to see them perform it live. Unfortunately, it was not to be; Lonny
passed away on November 24th, two days before the show from a
pulmonary embolism resulting from diabetes-related blood clots in his
bloodstream.

But Lonny’s family was in attendance at the Shaw Blades concert to
hear Lonny’s song and were moved by the performance. The following
week, Lisa G reported on Lonny’s death and subsequent news coverage of
his families at the Shaw Blades concert and brought Robin to tears and
cast a shadow of sadness over the Stern Show as we had, once again,
lost a member of our Sternfan family. At the end of the year, during
the “Staff Picks” show, Howard chose the first playing of Lonny’s song
as one of his choices for “Best of the Year”.

Nearly a year after Lonny’s untimely passing, Natalie Maines,
celebrity Sternfan and lead singer for the Dixie Chicks, sang the song
as the opener to Howard’s wedding. A couple weeks later, on November
3rd, 2008, Natalie was asked to sing the song as she did at the
wedding and she and Fred Norris paid homage to Lonny’s memory with the
most beautiful rendition of Lonny’s song to date:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXdjco1Wi4Y