continued…

This was when things were getting better.  For years I never made any money playing music.  My first performances were in neighborhood garages, basements and backyards for friends, schoolmates or unlucky parents.  My band mate friends and I got all our equipment together and beat the hell out of it for hours at a time.  I still remember we used to practice over at our drummer’s house (his dad, single parent, was usually either gone or unconscious).  I was only 13 so I had to have my dad drive me over and drop me off with my guitar and amp.  We would practice for a few hours and then the parents that gave a damn would pick us up and take us home.  We learned tunes by the Ramones, Rolling Stones, and Beatles.  My favorites were Deep Purple and Kiss (more and better guitar solos!) but I could never convince the rest of the band to play any of their stuff.

We had a female bass player.  I never thought much of it from a sexist point of view.  She told us at school she had a bass and wanted to play in the band.  Hey, that’s good enough for me!  We practiced with the goal in mind of playing the school talent show.  Unfortunately, the week before the show the bass playing female quit the group.  Why, why, why?!  So close to our goal!  Later, the drummer told me that the ‘real reason’ she joined the group was she had a crush on me.  Because I never showed any interest in her (aside from what she was supposed to be doing with her bass) she got discouraged and quit.

To this day I still have never gotten used to the fact that most people simply cannot concentrate on playing music and keeping distracting social factors out of the equation.