N Sync member Kirkpatrick took music lessons at Pastel
A former Oil City resident recalls his conversation the musician.

Mark Porterfield, a former Oil City resident now living in Laguna Beach, Calif., sent an e-mail to the newspaper Friday regarding the story published Friday about the upcoming closing of the Pastel Music store in Oil City.

Porterfield pointed out that Chris Kirkpatrick, an original member of the 1990s boy band 'N Sync, took piano and guitar lessons at Pastel Music when he was a youngster.

Porterfield said he and the 'N Sync members were on the same plane from Moscow to Los Angeles a few years ago when Porterfield and Kirkpatrick, through the course of a conservation, came to learn they were both born at the Oil City Hospital. Kirkpatrick then told Porterfield about his first music lessons at Pastel.

Porterfield said he and the band members played cards together on that flight, and he said he still maintains an e-mail contact with Kirkpatrick. The band was flying to Los Angeles at that time to make an appearance on the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno."

Kirkpatrick spent most of his younger years in Oil City and Clarion. As a sixth-grader, he starred in the Oil City High School production of "Oliver!" in 1984.

Kirkpatrick is the grandson of Art Kirkpatrick of Clarion and the late Frances Kirkpatrick. He is now a member of the band Nigels 11.

Pastel Music, which has been operated by the Brozeski family for 54 years, will close on New Year's Eve.

-- From The Derrick