Creative Engineering’s Aaron Fechter dreamed up the animatronic band Rockafire Explosion, which lit up the stage at Showbiz Pizza locations all around the country. Now, a mural dedicated to the Orlando animatronic group may be demolished, crushing the dreams of Fechter and many children of the 80s.
Among the entertainers inspired by Rockafire: Ceelo Green, Adam Sandler, Ryan Gosling and Shooter Jennings.
“Shooter Jennings knew, he’s one of the fans who grew up with the Rockafire Explosion, and he knew it was my long-term dream to put a mural of the Rockafire Explosion on this wall behind my building here at Creative Engineering,” said Fechter.
Shooter, the son of singer Waylon Jennings, knew time was running out so even if for a day, the mural, which took two days to complete, was painted by an artist named “Castro.”
However, it now may fade away like childhood memories of Mitzi Mozzarela and the rest of the crew.
“They have said they’re going to take this wall down any day," Fechter said. "It could be taken down tomorrow.”
The “they” Fechter is referring to is one of the entities that bears the Dr. Phillips namesake, which the city of Orlando lists as co-owners of the wall. In a written statement, city spokesperson Cassandra Anne Lafser said:
“Laws regarding party walls allow for adjacent landowners the right to remove the wall in conjunction with demolition of their building as long as notice has been given to the other adjacent property owners, which was done by Dr. Phillips in this case. Only the upper portion of the wall will be removed as part of Dr. Phillip’s garage demolition with no impact to the Creative Engineering building.”
“If we just left the wall, it would cost about $40,000 to support it,” Fechter said.
But Fechter claims the company isn’t willing to compromise.
“Art begins here," Fechter said. "This is really what art is all about and they should support me, rather than try to crush me.”
We did reach out to the Dr. Phillips group but did not get a response as to the airing of this story.