Hum goals, well Im not going to get rich $150 dollars a night at a time, in fact as far as money when I break it hourly Im highly underpaid compared to what I do for a living.
When I was young, I mean real young I did it for females, playing in a junior high band and the girls screaming, I think that did it for me.
Once I got older it got to be for the party, just an excuse to get tore up.
For a while in college I actually did do it for the money, at that point I didnt need too much.
Late 20s, early 30s, I guess I used it as an excuse to get away from a wife I didnt like to be around so much, and when she went and got drunk, lets just say my bandmates could tell you some crazy stories of her going offf on me and us getting into knock down drag out fights, but i only missed one set going thru all of that.
Mid 40s and the divorce hit, I think that playing saved my life. I had given up even doing casual gigs in my mid to late 30s thinking that might save my marriage (NOT!!!). so when she left and she took the kids half the time, I could just get drunk and get more drunk. One day my old singer happened to stop by, I said man, Im lost more than Ive ever been in my life, I dont know what to do with my self. He said John, we are having request for the old AYM band, the one with you, Brooks, Andy and I. He said weve got a gig coming up with our original band, and we want to get you guys and do an hour cover set. I said sure.
We had played for many years, and I always was the typical super cocky guitarist gun slinger, but that hour set was murder, I only had a couple of weeks to get the cobwebs off, I couldnt nail my cues, I was just awful. This was a one off thing, so after that, I started really practicing again, I mean 4-8 hours at a pop. This was in the summer monthes.
I bummed around like a lot of folks on here trying to get in another band, or start one, to no real luck, the two or three that had potential just didnt make it out of the garage, but it really didnt matter cause i was relearning so many songs that it helped me do something productive with my time.
Nov rolls around and the guys came to see me again. They said look weve got a big New Years show, and we want to get AYM again for that, I figured they wanted to open for an hour, but no. they said we are going to do the original thing first and then 2 hour sets of AYM as headliners. Im like why? They said well we are phazing out of the original act cause we arent going anywhere, no money, just spending it,. and doing that gig with you guys was just like an old pair of shoes.
So that was it, I was back in my old band, the one I founded and held together for 15 years, got me back in it.
Still going thru the divorce, it turned into the ideal situation to meet women, so it went full circle, its not the music its the women, and i enjoyed a couple of years of that.
But now Im married again, so I had to kinda cut back on the woman thing at gigs, my wife has some how made it thru the gauntlet on this, the first gig she went to with me, all the gals would come up rub my head, and act like I was fughen em all or at least thats what the future wife thought at the time.
Now days, I get real joy in knowing what Ive got, three guys I can get with, and we can do a show and blow about 90% of the bands youve ever seen away, I mean big bands, small bands, young bands and old bands, if its harder rock music there are very few that can hang with us. We only practice once in a blue moon, in fact this sat we are doing one, and we did a gig in sept, the last time we played together, but does that bother me, hell no. Its not that we sound so great, its not that we look so good, its not anyting in particular other than the chemistry between us. Last gig we were palying RHCP Suck My Kiss and on the first verse I broke my low e string cause I was slapping it so hard. Which for that song you almost have to have, so what happend?
The band played on while I changed guitars, I missed maybe 10-12 measures and then kicked back in, most of the crowd probably didnt even know I broke a string.
Thats what i love, the excitement of it all, not knowing what is going to happen, and overcoming obstacles. and doing it with my bros.......
I know this was way longwinded, dont know what got in me maybe happy fingers.
But in the end, these days when we do a gig and I hit a solo, I may have played a thousand times, maybe something like sweet home alabama, or might be killing in the name, but when I nail my parts, and the other guys are cooking with me, and the audience is digging that when Im most happy these days playing music, and of course having the Aint Yo Mama dancers dancing in front of me is good too, just dont tell my wife!
"A winks as good as nod to a blind man"
