Our Friend Josh Gilbert has Died

Our friend, Josh Gilbert, passed away last night after a long battle with cancer.

Who was Josh Gilbert?

Most may know him as writer, director, producer of the documentary, A/K/A Tommy Chong which chronicles the entrapment and incarceration of Tommy Chong.  He spent years creating this film.  Josh was one of the most passionate people I've ever known.  He was so proud of this film and it won numerous awards.

After it was released, Tommy and Shelby Chong allegedly wanted the rights to the film.  Josh refused so they allegedly got one of the film's investors to sue Josh.  Josh spent a fortune defending his film and eventually had to get another investor to buy out the unhappy investor.

It's a long, long story and it really sucked the energy out of him.

But Josh was always upbeat.  Always had great film ideas.  He was always working on documentaries.  He briefly worked with Vice TV, also worked on a doc about an autistic boy, Jake the Film, which tugged at your heartstrings. He loved people.

How do I know Josh Gilbert?

I used to own Cheech and Chong Dot Com.  I owned it for years and Cheech and Chong didn't care because their Cheech and Chong career was over and the brand was dying.  Eventually, I got them to reunite.

All of a sudden, they wanted their domain.

Josh and I spent hours on the phone each night.  He told me about all the shit Tommy and Shelby put him through.  He told me so many god awful stories about Cheech Marin and the Chong family that I could write a book.

Josh wanted me to change my name to cheechandchong dot com so they couldn't take it away from me.

I last spoke to him in August of this year.  He was going in for a stem cell procedure in a last ditch effort to defeat his cancer.  He had 3 things on his mind.  His son, his cancer and how much Tommy "allegedly" fucked him over.  He told me he wanted to post a video on YouTube about Tommy Chong.  I told him he should.  I don't know if he ever recorded the video, but I know hours of audio were recorded when he was in for treatment.

I somehow knew this would be my last conversation with him.  The next day I sent him an email thanking him for everything he did for me.

I'll post memories as they come to mind.

Goodbye, Bub.