"Part: 11 Listen to Michael Davis's In Search Of Heroes Interview" by Ralph Zuranski
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Michael Davis: He left me. He left my sister. My mom’s a hero. She never once thought of herself. She always took care of me and my sister first.
I hear a lot of this stuff about heroes, man, but a hero is not somebody who does something, dies and then is called a hero because he was really good at what he was doing. No, no, no. A hero is selfless.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah. You had a pretty rough upbringing. Did you ever create a secret hero in your mind to help you deal with life?
Michael Davis: Johnny Gent.
Ralph Zuranski: That was your hero?
Michael Davis: I haven’t thought about that in years. His name was Johnny Gent. Me and him were boys. We were imaginary friends. I had a whole history about him.
Ralph Zuranski: Really? What did he do?
Michael Davis: I should put him in one of my books now that I think about it.
Ralph Zuranski: What were the qualities or attributes he had?
Michael Davis: He just did the right thing. I would have conversations with Johnny about not doing my homework. Johnny would say to me in my head, “You had better do your homework. If not, you’ll be in trouble tomorrow.”
Stuff like that. He just pretty much did the right thing, which is cool.
Ralph Zuranski: Was his last name G-E-N-T Gent?
Michael Davis: It was J-E-N-T because you know I went to public school and I couldn’t spell.
Ralph Zuranski: He was a gentleman, Johnny the Gentleman?
Michael Davis: Yeah, I never thought about that but yeah, Johnny the Gent. Yeah, G-E-N-T. He was just my imaginary very best friend who I haven’t thought of in years until you brought it up. I’m going to put him in a book!
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah, you should other than Larry the guy that you used his library card.
Michael Davis: Larry White. (Laughter) To make up for my horrible indiscretion I always create a character in homage to Larry. I realize that that was wrong, wrong, wrong what I did.
Ralph Zuranski: You found his library card and then you just used it and never took the books back? Do you think the library came after that guy?
Michael Davis: It was a ridiculous amount of books! Back in those days they didn’t come after you. You could actually go into a library and ask for a different card and they would just give it to you.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah.