02/24/2024
Scott Duchesneau, your stepson, Sean Philip Corbett Nottoli, spoke some of the most beautiful words about you!
Irritating Julie
Scott Duchesneau- Eulogy
Good evening, everyone. Some of you may know me as Scott’s stepson Sean, or “Irritating Junior” or “Son of Irritating”. I wanted to thank you all for coming to help celebrate Scott's life and legacy. I can’t begin to tell you how much all of your love and support has meant to my mother and I these past few days. How do you eulogize a man like Scott? How do you sum up the life of a man who gave you and your family so much? While it would be impossible to do a man justice by describing him in a speech or a few short words, I will attempt to do so. If you had to ask me the best three words or qualities to describe Scott, I would say “Hard Working,” “Selfless,” and “Dedicated.” I met Scott when I was still a tot in diapers. I was living alone with my mother in my great-grandmother’s house on Duncan Street in Columbia, SC, in the early 90s when one day, we received a knock at our door. A young Scott Duchesneau was standing at our door, holding his gardening tools, wanting to give us an estimate for his services for cutting the lawn. One hot, fateful day, when I was 3 or 4 years old, I saw Scott sweating out in the hot sun mowing the lawn, so I dragged him into the kitchen to get him something to drink, and he never left. Mom says he didn’t leave because he thought she was cute. Scott said he never left because he needed to rescue me from her. He was right; I needed rescuing. In our lives in Columbia, Scott would take on many jobs to provide for my mother and I, bread truck delivery driver, grocery store and retail store manager, and ultimately became a tile setter and contractor. One of the greatest lessons I learned from Scott was hard work. In everything he did, he gave his all, and then some, and his work reflected that. He would transform newly constructed, barren rooms of plywood and timber into masterpieces of marble, granite, glass and porcelain. I should know, as much to my early chagrin, my first job was helping Scott to lay tile. Waking up at 5;30 in the morning 6 days a week, carrying bag after bag of thin-set, box after box of tile up countless flights of stairs, constantly working on our knees in new, unconditioned homes, measuring, cutting, grouting, in some extreme circumstances 12-18 hours a day, I learned the value of the dollar and a man’s labor through him. Scott taught me what it took to make it through this world. Through working with him as I entered adulthood I came to realize just where my childhood memories came from. From the mountain of toys I would find every Christmas morning, to the summer vacations at Disney that I took for granted as a child, the cost of my education, I learned to truly appreciate what it took to make life enjoyable for your family. Scott not only worked hard, but played hard. In just as equal devotion to his work, he devoted himself completely to his music. He spent countless hours, constantly practicing, working to be a better musician and drummer, experimenting with and creating new dazzling light displays to captivate his audience. I can remember spending countless hours in the garage with him, playing with fog machines and laser lights, trying to make cool light effects that worked in sync with the music. That hard work and passion would ultimately payoff and result into the band we all love and adore today, “Irritating Julie.” There has been much debate in our household over the years, on whether the name meant that the band members were irritating my mother, or if she was irritating everyone else. I’m sure you can all imagine as to what Scott and I insisted the true meaning of the title was. The band was everything to Scott. There was no greater passion in his life than to see the band succeed and to ensure that the band always played the most top-quality music possible. Yet again, the results speak for themselves. Through his hard work and persistence, he turned his drumming, his passion, not only into a way to provide for his family, but ultimately impact the community. Irritating Julie became a local legend and staple of the music scene in both Beaufort and Columbia for many years. Through the band, he met so many talented musicians over the years whom he greatly admired and respected, and whose friendships he would forever cherish. Not only musicians, but venue owners, workers, staff, bookers, party goers and more. Your friendship and admiration for the music meant more to him than you could ever know. In summation, I can think of no better comparison for Scott as a man than that to his historical idol Nathan Hale. For those of you who don’t know, Nathan Hale was a founding father of this country whom Scott had great respect for, and grew up adjacent to his historical home in Connecticut. Hale, a normal man for his time, did what he could to support the revolution and acted as a spy for the Americans. He was ultimately captured and executed, with his final words being “I have but one regret, that I have only one life to give for my country.” Like Nathan Hale, during his lifetime Scott never had his name on a building or lights, but like Nathan, his legacy lives on. Scott’s life proves the incredible impact that of a good, common man can have, and he has certainly left his mark on the community and those he temporarily left behind. In the beat of every drummer he ever met or inspired, in the twang of every guitar from the Filling Station to Plums, Luthers or Uncorked, to every note played on a keyboard throughout the Lowcountry, his memory lives on. I know that if Scott were able to speak tonight, he would tell his band mates and all of us here that the show must continue, and that in honor of his memory we should all, each and every one of us, rock on!
