He was the big black guy with a pink Mohawk at the mall. The drummer who gave his band’s metallic punk-rock shake appeal. The guy who cooked your tacos. The intimidating yet big-hearted dude who fed alley cats. A proud dad. True-blue.

Mike Horgan died in his sleep March 20 at age 44. As a musician, Horgan’s known for playing drums in Cancerslug, a Misfits-influenced band that’s toured and recorded prolifically and cultivated a loyal worldwide cult audience. But in Huntsville he’s may be even better known for being a cook for 20 or so years at one of Huntsville’s most iconic restaurants, Bandito Burrito. Horgan also worked the door some at the city’s most rock & roll bar, Voodoo Lounge. If you ever saw him you’d never forget him. A tattooed, black-clad and thoroughly dangerous-looking rocker.

“Anybody that knew music in Huntsville knew Mike,” says Alex Story, Cancerslug’s wolfman-like singer. “Anybody that went to bars knew Mike. He was just a Huntsville staple, one of a kind.” A testament to how well he was thought of by his community, fans and fellow musicians: after Horgan died, an online crowd funding campaign to raise money for his funeral received more than $10,000 in about a day.

On May 25, local bands including Casket Kids, Go-Go Killers, Property and ThunderKrotch will celebrate Horgan with a 9 p.m. tribute concert at Studio 150 at Lowe Mill, address 2211 Seminole Drive. Admission is free. A $10 donation to benefit his family is appreciated.

"If there were to be a picture in the dictionary to describe a punk rock mother---er, it’d be Mike’s picture, " says Go-Go Killers singer Donnie Sharp, whose band helped organize the tribute show. “He could be pretty harsh and blunt, but he had a truly good heart and was underground through and through. When he passed, I knew someone had to do a tribute. So I contacted the bands that knew him here the longest, all of whom were his friends.”

Huntsville musicians Mike Horgan, left, and Donnie Sharp. (Courtesy photo)

Story says he plans on getting up and playing songs with some of the bands at the tribute. He first met Horgan when both were in high school, Story at Decatur High and Horgan at Butler and Grissom, and going to shows at Tip Top Café and the local National Guard Armory. They bonded over punk groups like Black Flag and Dead Kennedys and metal bands like Motorhead and Venom.

"As soon as we started talking we became like best friends," Story says. "And by the time he joined the band we were inseparable for the longest time. Like we spent decades on the road, travelling and getting into stuff."

Story says Horgan played on about eight proper Cancerslug studio albums as well as other demo like raw recordings the band's hardcore fans relish. Now, Story is readying the group's final recordings with Horgan on drums, an album called "Battle Hymns III" and working out a new lineup for the band's upcoming 20th anniversary shows, including a June 20 gig at legendary West Hollywood, Calf. club Whisky a Go Go.

"He embodied everything that we talked about in Cancerslug and stuff," Story says. "Sex, drugs and rock & roll, that's Mike. There is no moving forward without him, but at the same time we have fans, people who want to hear the music, love the stuff, so we keep going. But it's almost like you're doing a whole new band. That's the way I always look at it when a band member changes anyway. We may keep the same name and play some of the same songs but it's a different band at this point."

The Cancerslug song “Greed” off the album “Seasons of Sickness” contains some of Story’s favorite drumming by Horgan. “Mike may have never played a song the same way twice but he always played it awesome,” Story says. “He played with such energy but then he also had that swing and that groove. A lot of our shows, there might be a big pit going for one of the heavier songs, but you’d see like the first three rows just be girls and they’d all be dancing because of Mike’s groove. And we had some of thickest grooves ever. And that was just him.”

Horgan joined Cancerslug around 2007. In 2019, although he’d been dealing with health issues, including asthma, diabetes and an abscessed tooth, he was psyched about doing another Cancerslug tour. Unfortunately, it was not to be. However, Story says Horgan will still be a part of the band’s live show, including images of the drummer shown onstage and a set list filled with the Cancerslug songs Horgan liked playing best, including “Women and Dope.” Cancerslug got their band name from the nickname of Story’s old Chevy Nova that “leaked every fluid it could leak on the ground behind it and would just leave this trail of death behind it.” The band isn’t exactly a household name, but they’ve built a legit fanbase, particularly on the west and east coasts. Horgan’s punk lifer ethos was the band’s heartbeat, as when he played drums on their 2006 EP “UnNameable” with a broken foot and injured left hand, sticking a drumstick into his hand cast so he could still play.

Huntsville musician Mike Horgan and fiance Becca Billiter. (Courtesy photo)

Horgan's fiancé Becca Billiter met him decades ago, when he was a teenaged skateboarder relocated to Huntsville from Boston. Her family had recently returned here from living in Australia.

“You couldn’t not see Mike,” Billiter recalls. “He walked or skateboarded everywhere. He was always a character and dressed crazy. He was the coolest skateboarder.” One of the things that immediately struck her about Horgan was how comfortable he was in his own skin. “He wasn’t going to let it be a situation where he moves here, it’s a culture shock and, ‘Oh I’m just going to shut down because I don’t like being here,’” she says. “No. He just made it his own city.”

On a recent afternoon Billiter is seated at a picnic table on the patio outside Bandito Burrito. She's wearing a black top and purple eyeshadow and her eyes are swimming-pool blue. A bona fide rock chick. She tells me Horgan "didn't just star in his own movie he directed it." The couple lived in a house three doors down from Bandito's Governor's Drive locale. Besides rock music, Horgan's other interests including collecting "Star Wars" stuff and he and Billiter enjoyed decorating their home together. He also liked to play video games some, a pursuit Billiter says Horgan would enjoy with his son Noah. "He loved his son more than anything," Billiter says. Horgan is also survived by his mom Sheila Baines, brothers Elijah Horgan and Tyrone Sutton and sister Loretta Wongus. Billiter says he was a standup, loving stepdad figure for her daughters Anya and Tora and even took a special liking to Anya's little puppy. At home, Horgan liked to cook dishes such as lasagna and spaghetti and watch TV shows like "South Park" and "The Goldbergs." Other local bands he played in over the years included 15E, The Pins, The W.O.P.S., The Shiznits, Sewer Punx and the excellently named Party Dudes 69 Bro.

Bandito Burritos' pirate-like owner Oscar Gutierrez came to view Horgan as a son. Horgan learned all the restaurant's recipes straight from Gutierrez's mom. "He remembered everything about anybody, it could be somebody he just met once," Gutierrez says. Eventually, Horgan took over Oscar's tradition of cooking breakfast for Bandito employees on Saturday mornings.

Gutierrez’s granddaughter Hayden Mills knew Horgan practically her entire life. She says Horgan’s enchiladas were the best dish he cooked at Bandito. When she was a little kid, he would playfully chase her around the Bandito building. “He was definitely one of the most loving and caring people I’ve known in my entire life,” Mills says. Despite his tough street look and edgy sense of humor, Gutierrez says Horgan was “a teddy bear. Everybody loved him. That’s the bottom line.”

Even though Horgan's music of choice was typically hardcore rock by bands like Bad Brains, he was also a fan of pop singers like Michael Jackson and Madonna. He and Billiter even went to a Madonna concert together.

Quite a beautiful dichotomy, this guy Mike Horgan.

Billiter thinks Horgan would be proud a tribute concert featuring Huntsville musicians is being held in his honor. He wore his city on his sleeve, Billiter says. “Mike wasn’t embarrassed of where he was from. ‘Oh, I’m from Huntsville I have to get out of here.’ No, he was very proud of being from here.”