McEuen picked the song because of its anti-violence message, he said Wednesday. After being contacted by a member of the murdered teen's family and then by a friend of Hollywood, McEuen said, he decided to stop singing the song at shows. "I didn't want to offend anyone or make money off someone else's tragedy," the 25-year-old singer said.
Holster, who worked with McEuen's father, John McEuen, writing songs for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, said he picked up his pen after reading a magazine article about the case more than three years ago. "To be honest it was the name that got me," said Holster. "I thought this name couldn't be real.
" It is. Hollywood's father has said that he was named after an uncle. Holster's song taps into a tradition of folk tunes like the song about the cold-blooded killer Stagger Lee.
Holster said he was in a more Dylanesque mode when he wrote the lyrics and thought of it more like Bob Dylan's "Hurricane," a flowing collage of events. "That's what makes it a folk song," he said. Prosecutors in Santa Barbara allege that Hollywood orchestrated the kidnapping and murder of 15-year-old West Hills high school student Nick Markowitz in August 2000.
Four of his co-defendants already have been tried and convicted for their parts in the crime. Hollywood, who disappeared soon after the killing, was captured in Brazil two years ago. He awaits trial in a Santa Barbara County Jail.
If convicted, he could be put to death. For Holster, the whole story of young doped-up kids sleepwalking their way through the crime read like a Shakespearean tragedy. He didn't want the song to be inhabited by pop catchphrases and he wanted it to have a message.
McEuen's album is available on iTunes and amazon.com.
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