orn into a career military family, Casey Castille Nassberg (nee Shelton)
became a world traveler at the age of two, spending her early years in locations as
far-flung as Saudi Arabia and Japan.  As a toddler, she displayed a prodigious
ability with everything creative to which she laid her hand (time would prove math to
be a very different story).  Always the "new kid", and a naturally shy one at that, she
found her artistic abilities a means by which to make friends.  

Casey was frequently ill, which added to her sense of isolation as an only child
and the perennial new arrival.  She frequently indulged her voracious appetite for
books and music as an escape from an often stressful childhood, filled with
chronic pain and constant loss.  Perhaps predictably, depression set in about the
time she experienced her first hallucinatory migraine at the age of eight.  Casey
marks this event as the beginning of a twenty-five year battle with her health, during
which time she was seen by doctors from Tokyo, Japan to Yarmouth, Maine.  
Repeatedly told her problems were figments of her imagination, she continued to
live with undiagnosed mystery ailments, struggling each day for the energy to get
out of bed.  Often, every movement was painful, and most mornings brought
excruciating, inexplicable gastrointestinal problems, at the least.

Stubborn as the figurative mule, Casey bullied through, always with the loftiest of
ambitions and, by the grace of God, enough spirit to accomplish a good deal of
them.  1993 saw both her graduation from Moanalua High School and her father's
retirement from the Army.  Released from the reins of these institutions, and
exhausted by the cycle of new schools, she eschewed the college track and
decided to visit a good friend in Norman, Oklahoma.  She stayed for seven years.

Norman, home to the Flaming Lips, Starlight Mints, Chainsaw Kittens and a bevy
of other talented bands, provided Casey with a band of her own.  In 1994, The
Mimsies formed at a poker game.  Ten years later, after an move to Hollywood,
three albums, playing to thousands of audiences across the continent, attracting
major label attention, and a legion of dedicated fans both in and out of the press,
Casey left the band while in the middle of their third national tour.  Her health had
finally issued the long-dreaded ultimatum: quit or die.

After a showcase at Manhattan's Continental Club, Casey allowed herself and her
guitarist to be abducted by The Mimsies' management team.  They drove all night
from New York to Cincinnati, which served as a makeshift base of operations until
the next move could be planned.

Two months later, she and her guitar player hopped a Greyhound bus to Memphis.
The trip left a profound impression on Casey.  Dejected by the reality of having to
abandon her ten-year baby, feeling set adrift and angry with herself once again for
being inexplicably sick, she found herself speechless when she approached the
memorial gardens at Graceland.  Elvis's epitaph hit home; on it, his father, Vernon,
had inscribed, simply, "He needed to rest".

The inscription struck a deep chord and sounded a warning, although, proving
herself as stubborn as ever, it would be another five years before Casey would
rest, and then, only because she was forced to.

After a four-year stint  in San Francisco's legal industry, where she helped build an
employment law firm, Casey had to shut down her life and resign herself to
convalescing in the care of her parents, at their home in Texas.  She was
debilitated by blinding migraines, having up to seven a day, beset by infections,
kidney stones, chronic pain, wild mood swings and suicidal ideation.  Her doctors,
reputedly some of the best in the business, continued to do what they had always
done for her - sidestep her questions and prescribe medications that only made
her more ill.  Trips to the emergency room were frequent enough to be treated by
the staff as routine.  During this time, the only thing that kept Casey going was her
daily routine - dragging herself out of bed at eight pm, walking six blocks to the
gym, and working out for two hours.  The rest of the time, she was confined to bed.

Finally, with her mother as an advocate, she found help in the form of three
doctors; two in Texas, one in Maine.  At last correctly diagnosed with Type II
Diabetes, PCOD and Celiac Disease, and receiving appropriate treatment for all,
she started to feel, for the first time in her life, better.

Not long after receiving her diagnoses, she decided to pay respect to the thing that
kept her going, and enrolled in the Personal Fitness Trainer Academy in Round
Rock, Texas.  As her health improved, life opened up. She took a job as a trainer at
Anytime Fitness and discovered a love for helping people improve their health.   
She started performing again.  She returned, triumphantly, to the Bay Area, on the
arm of a new husband.  

Casey now lives in Oakland, California, with her soul mate and best friend, Aaron
Nassberg.  She performs regularly with the other talented cast members of San
Francisco's Hubba Hubba Revue.  In addition to her fitness career, she is
employed regularly as an illustrator.  She no longer knows depression or anxiety,
and enjoys what she calls "normal" energy levels.  Currently writing a book about
her experiences, Casey considers herself an advocate of women's health issues
and a champion of all those who feel small, weak, sick and lonely.
Case then.
Case now.
The Mimsies' first full-length record,
"Trash and Rock & Roll" (sound
familiar?), released May, 2001.