I was on the road with someone for a while. Someone totally opposite of me…. Or so I thought. As some of you know, I cut my teeth on country & a variety of music styles. I liked a few metal bands but was not overtaken by them. This person, lived slept, breathed and drank Metal. Odds of us meeting in the world were slim to none. Yet, it happened. I needed a guitar player, a road warrior. Not the pansy ass’s that go out for two weeks and think they are “on the road”. I needed someone for 48 wks a year. 6 to 7 days a week, live in the swill of a band house, drive or ride on your day off, and get along with the people you gotta share a bathroom with. Requirements… be able to play with some “wow” capability J ya’ll know what I mean lol, be clean no users, try not to suck and be nice to the people around you, and work on tunes once in a while. Last but not least, be in a position that you don’t expect me to check with your wife/gf or significant other when I book gigs or do scheduling. NOT gonna happen. Believe it or not, these requirements don’t fit everyone very easily. When one is found… it must be looked at with serious commitment. Knowing that two weeks notice.. you start looking again.
I found him, or did he find me… I’m not sure. I know that he sent me a demo, that was a start. Promo package with his work. The song… “Town without pity” done with an edge that gave me goosebumps when I heard it. Instrumental. The boy could play.
The image… J well.. He had spiked blonde hair, spandex, pissed off looking in every picture. I called him. He was half the country away. First impression was.. wow. Hope he doesn’t break tv’s in motels. On the phone I asked him if he could play any basic country or objected to playing it. (we had lots of country gigs at the time). Without getting into this entirely different subject… country may appear simple to some.. however in order to pull it off there is a knack… there is a style and a feel. I have always felt that most country pickers can play rock, cause they listen to it and feel it.. get into it. However not all rock players can play country. It is that simple. You gotta like it, or it sounds like a constipated piece of sound. Forced. I digress.. Back to my metal head.
When I asked if he could play other kinds of music and was he opposed to country, he responded with “ I learned to play music before I learned to play metal”. 2 Kudos for da boy. The boy.. was 3 years older than me, talking to him you would never know it.
He was a glam rock boy.. when the 80’s was going on, his world was in full bloom. He had booze, women and rock and roll. Things important to him were his hair, his guitar, his pack of cigarettes a day, his whopper a day, his whiskey, and the miss ok for now for the hour. Yes.. hour. Not night. There was a line. His road life was his life. His band mates, his family. He was a monster guitarist. He wore it well.
One morning after the 80’s… he woke up, and his world was gone. The glam bands were no longer top dog… they had faded like his favorite pair of jeans. The road stopped.
In order to continue playin in the way he was accustomed to, meant playing with another kind of band…. Here is where we came in J
He made the trip, he stayed. He played with us two different times in life for months at a time. He did have a wife back in Georgia. His lifestyle changed a bit. When he joined us we must have seemed as if we were Donnie and Marie lol.
While he was on the road with us… things awoke in me. With every player you work with, you gain something, if you are open to what is happening.. you add, you change, you grow musically and personal things and ideas sometimes rub off for both. This happened. I drank more than I ever did when he was in the band. He and I became friends as well as working together. Hours of playin guitar off stage as well as on. Not for material we planned on using…. Just to play. He would wake up and take a swig of whiskey. He always smelled of it… just a hint. He was never without a bottle. When he would sweat, he sweat whiskey. His attitude kept him young… he was showing his age on the outside, his hair was thinning, he needed more whiskey to survive, but the rock n roll attitude was there. I was rubbing off on him, he actually smiled at a few people and helped a couple of older people in a store a few times.. you had to see it to understand. His influence on me…. I drank. I played parts I never would have paid attention to, we laughed lots. He was a bad boy. I stayed a good girl lol in bad girl clothes. Don’t cut image short cause people will have what you give them as a first impression.
He will always forever be in his mind, the spiked haired 20 something guitar God.
When he walks into a store today, at first glance you see a cherubic, hair thinned 50 something year old man going to the paperback book section or the vitamin counter.
When you look a bit longer, you will see what he is inside.. it comes thru, there is no hiding or denying it. This is the youth within, rock n roll keeps him young no matter what his body does. He said it to me once, I will never get old. I have Rock n Roll, it will never die. It keeps me young. He truly believed it. So do I. The minute you stop thinking like a rocker… you get older. It is the essence.. the attitude not so much the actions. All you have to do for a fix to maintain.. is.. put on a favorite tune, something that made you react…. Listen to it again, and you get young again. You can’t help it. Open yourself up to it and you will feel it, that taste of … youth At this time I would like to interject not to dance like you used to unless you have been doing it all along. For Obvious reasons.
I did this today J I am feeling bout 26 at the moment… having a great morning. My neck now hurts … for obvious reasons. Ahem.
I would like to thank today’s inspiration to Hans Stoutpeter. ( Love ya Dave)
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