A video report was released by Orange County Sheriff’s officials on Oct. 6 of the response to the mass shooting at Cook’s Corner on August 23. (Courtesy of Orange County Sheriff’s Department)
The last time Mark Johnson was at Cook’s Corner, broken glass still littered the floor. Blood had dried on the musical instruments that his M Street Band abandoned when a vengeful ex-cop blasted the place with bullets, instantly transforming Orange County’s beloved back-country biker bar into the site of yet another mass shooting.
It was Wednesday Spaghetti Night, Aug. 23, 2023. They were halfway through Fleetwood Mac’s “Rhiannon,” about a Welsh witch. Bassist Dave Stretch was hit in the hip. Guitarist Ed Means, in the arm. Three people were killed and four others injured in the minutes before Orange County Sheriff’s deputies descended en masse and a thunderous gunfight ensued. Those quick, percussive blasts … if you were there, you will never forget.
There were 272 mass shootings in 2014 — defined as four or more people shot and/or killed, not including the shooter — and 656 in 2023, according to The Gun Violence Archive. Cook’s Corner was just one of them.
It felt like eons, but it was only a matter of minutes until gunman John Snowling was neutralized — i.e., shot dead. The injured were rushed to the hospital. The survivors questioned exhaustively. Finally, stung with shock and horror, they were allowed to leave. Cars and musical equipment, though, had to stay behind: This was a crime scene. Like many others, Johnson and his wife and fellow bandmate Debbie called an Uber to get home.
The M Street band was performing at Cook’s Corner when the first shots were fired by gunman John Patrick Snowling. Band members from left, Ed Means, Brian Lynch, Debbie Johnson, Dave Stretch and Mark Johnson. (Photo courtesy of Debbie Johnson)
It was hard, the next evening, when they reclaimed the thousands of dollars worth of instruments and equipment left behind. It hadn’t been cleaned up yet. Horror was still everywhere.
“We were all right in front of a crazed gunman,” Johnson recalled last week. “You think a little differently, you live your life a little differently, when you realize your life could have been gone.”
There have been 43 mass shootings that killed 57 people and injured 169 in California over the past year, according to data from The Gun Violence Archive. That doesn’t count the shooters.
There were plenty of motorcycles and people to be blessed by Father James Smith at the 9th annual Blessing of the Bikes at Cook’s Corner in 2009. (File photo byMICHAEL GOULDING, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER/SCNG)
Today, Cook’s Corner is its funky, old, unvarnished self. Bar regulars, wild white hair flowing, evoke a combination of Albert Einstein and Mad Max. Black leather jackets and vests are plentiful, beer taps are busy, classic rock bands croon Rolling Stones covers, neon Budweiser signs blaze.
The weekly calendar remains full — Open Mike Mondays, Taco Tuesdays, Spaghetti Wednesdays, Country Night Thursdays, Fish & Chips Fridays, live music Saturdays and Sundays — and the bikes keep rolling in.
Harleys and Hondas. Indians and BMWs. Suzukis and Kawasakis. In May, hundreds upon hundreds of gleaming motorcycles lined up for the 24th annual “Blessing of the Bikes” by Father James from nearby St. Michael’s Abbey. The robed priest tooled between long lines of bikes in a golf cart, flinging water from a plastic bottle, explaining that water for blessings is an ancient practice common among many religions.
“Blessing is a prayer. It’s a gift from God. Anyone can bless anything they want to,” Father James told an enthusiastic videographer. “But a lot of people like some kind of personal contact.”
The quest for community, companionship, camaraderie, is part of why so many rallied around Cook’s after the tragedy. They begged it to reopen, doggedly determined to vanquish darkness with light. And one week after the shootings, the iconic landmark was open again.
The signs still say “Cold Beer, Good Food, Pool, Entertainment, Dancing, Color TV” and “Children welcome.” There are inflatable bull-riding contests, line-dancing lessons, bacon and eggs breakfasts, burgers and fries dinners. It’s an eclectic piece of O.C. history.
A woman holds a candle during a prayer service for the victims of the Cook’s Corner shooting at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest on Friday, August 25, 2023. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Cook’s Corner was built in 1884, where Santiago Canyon Road meets Live Oak Canyon Road. It’s named after landowner Andrew Jackson Cook, whose son converted it into a restaurant to feed miners and ranchers in 1926. After Prohibition, it became a bar, and has been a fixture ever since, even as it changed owners several times. The biker vibe came on strong with erstwhile owners Victor Villa and Volker Streicek, who ran the Santa Ana motorcycle accessories company Cheat’ah Engineering.
It’s also a crucible of memories.
“Used to be horses tied up out front before motorcycles,” Alan Goatham commented online. Back in the 1950s, Ray Fury would ride his bike there “and Jack Cook would heat up a cellophane-wrapped pastrami sandwich in the convection oven for me. What memories, I can still taste those sandwiches,” he wrote. Every camping trip to O’Neill Regional Park began and ended with a stop at Cook’s, wrote Cyndie Faulkner Pilipovich. Susan Holmes Atkinson visited for the first time in the summer of ’92, met a Pendleton Marine, and has been married to him for more than 30 years.
Since last Aug. 23, Los Angeles has seen seven mass shootings. There were three each in Compton and Oakland, and one each in Adelanto, Alameda, Azusa, Carson, Chula Vista, Downey, Fontana, Fresno, Hawthorne, Huntington Park, Inglewood, King City, Lancaster, Long Beach, Manteca, Oakley, Pasadena, Pomona, Reedley, Richmond, Sacramento, Salinas, San Fernando, San Francisco, San Pedro, Santa Maria, Spring Valley, Vallejo, Vista and, of course, Trabuco Canyon, according to The Gun Violence Archive.
In the wake of the tragedy, Mark Johnson and the M Street Band were quick to do a benefit concert for the victims in Huntington Beach, raising some $8,500 for their GoFundMe pages.
“The physical wounds,” Johnson said, “were not nearly what the mental wounds end up being.”
Yes, they’re all much more sensitive to loud noises. July Fourth gigs and ceremonial cannon blasts can be tough. But the clarity that comes with surviving a close brush with death has been transformative.
“When you share that kind of tragedy, it either drives you apart or brings you closer together,” he said. “It has brought us closer together. We’re playing more than we ever did and we truly enjoy it. Our year has been full.”
And revelatory. “It’s the very simple things,” Johnson said. “Is it really important to do X, or to spend time with family and friends and appreciate what you really enjoy doing in life? We probably take a little more vacation time, spend more time talking to each other and our loved ones, reaching out to family and friends. Stopping to smell the flowers. And we’re more reflective with our music.”
Peter Philips of Portola Hills waters the flowers placed at the memorial in front of Cook’s Corner in Trabuco Canyon as it reopens for business on Sept. 1. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
They don’t bring up the shooting but don’t shy away when asked about it. “We always want to remind everyone we’re the lucky ones. Several people didn’t walk away, including the heroes who tried to stop the gunman,” Johnson said. “Every time we see Orange County Sheriffs, we stop and say thanks. You’re pinned down in the corner of a little bar, everyone kind of laying on top of each other, and the good guys come in — how many? maybe 40? — it really felt like an army came to your aid.”
By perhaps the weirdest of coincidences, Johnson was in Las Vegas the night of the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival back in 2017. Friends asked if he wanted to go, but he was feeling lazy so he declined. When he awoke the next morning, he learned of the mass shooting that killed 61 and wounded more than 400. A woman he worked with was one of them.
It took time for her to process the trauma. As the fourth anniversary of that tragedy approached, Johnson was compelled to write something commemorating the loss of those who died, and celebrating the resilience of those who lived. He penned a song, “Four Years After,” which attracted top industry talent: It was produced by Alan Parsons and Tom Brooks, featured bassist Nathan East, keyboardist Greg Philinganes, drummer Steve Ferrone and vocalist Michael Grimm, an “America’s Got Talent” winner. The orchestra was recorded at London’s Abbey Road studios by Eric Clapton’s producer, Simon Climie.
“I hope to remind listeners that though headlines fade quickly, the distress emanating from these tragedies painfully reverberates forever in the hearts of those who have fallen victim,” Johnson wrote at the time.
Now, M Street’s bass player is working on a song about their own experience. They hope to play Cook’s Corner again someday — just not quite yet.
Cook’s Corner in Silverado on Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024 is a popular biker bar and restaurant. Aug. 23 will mark the one-year anniversary of the mass shooting at Cook’s Corner that killed three people and wounded six before responding Orange County Sheriff Deputies shot and killed the gunman, 59-year-old ex-Ventura police officer John Snowling. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
