I recently turned 32, started playing at 21. Well, sort of.
I wanted to learn music when I was a kid BAD. My parents friends were all musicians of one walk or another. I was maybe 8...our good family friend Tom bought me a guitar. I never got far with it mainly because I was 8 and had no direction. I tapped all day long though, on my thigh, desk, table, chair...nothing was safe. About 4 years later I really got a surprise when my Mom sprung for classical guitar lessons. About 3 months later I got my first electric guitar, some el cheapo Gremlin POS from a friend for $20 that I won at the basketball court. I had no amp, so I wired the guitar into an aux imput in the back of my sisters boom box. I wanted to play electric guitar pretty bad, but in the end I stuck with the lessons. (I am gettin to the drums) I played classical for upwards of 10 years, playing dozens of college courses, civic events, book stores, malls, hospitals, nursing homes, anywhere they would give me a chair. I attended masters level courses for music theory, the art of public performance, and guitar classes at Notre Dame, Bethel, and IUSB. I recieved numerous hand written letters from professors, deans, and students. Eventually I started teaching under the guidence of my instructor who began to view me more as a peer. At the time it all started to become too much so I quit. I never wanted music to be a job, music was fun and about self expression to me, not about showing someone else how to do it (yeah, I was a brat). I put my classical guitar away for a long LONG time. After all, I wanted to play Jimi...not Stravinski.
I left music until I was 21, almost 22. I would go to clubs with my brother-in-law in Chicago and he would always have the band offer me on stage, and I always refused. I have turned away from more "dream moments" than I ever attended...some make me question my sanity and many would have been life changing for me. However, music was about to force its way back into my life. At this point nobody I knew had any idea I could play anything, and I liked it that way. My friends wanted to start a punk/metal band and I kinda wanted in...but grabbing a guitar was still a bit much I guess. Enter the drums. I drove to GC and got the cheapest set of PDP drums I could get. Finally all those years of tapping on stuff paid off. I spent about a half an hour putting my kit together, sat down, and wrote my first song (which my band ended up using). After 2 years of beating those, I upgraded a little to my Gretsch Catalina Birch kit, which I still have. From there I started getting pieces and parts, putting entry level kits together for friends and neighbors for next to nothing. I walked away from metal and punk for a while and started getting back to my personal roots, the blues. I traded enough stuff around to get my first vintage kit, the Pearls in 22, 16, 13. I still collect pieces and put some decent kits together and practically give em away...music should not break the bank in my opinion and I try to keep it alive as it was kept alive for me.
Today I gig somewhat regularly with The Crossroad Kings, a blues band that plays mostly covers and is working on originals. I am 100% self taught on the drums which I both love and loathe at the same time, but I have fun. People I jam with regularly call about getting me tied into a band with em. I have been told I have great time, a great sense of where the song, piece, or jam is and where it needs to go, so on. I also started playing guitar again, but this time I have abandoned all classical teachings in favor of a bottle neck slide...again getting back to my personal roots. The main difference today is I appreciate things so much more than I did even 10 years ago. The simple ability to grab an instrument and play, to grab a really nice instrument and play, the education that went on behind it...all of those things I took for granted for far too long. I am really trying now to break myself of the stage fright that I have suffered from for too many years and really give back to the community that so generously gave to me. Some of my best friends and experiances through my life have come from musicians both present and gone. My recently passed friend who really started it all for me, Tom, said I have a very old soul, amazing talent, and a kind heart. I intend to live the rest of my life as such with music as my background.
Sorry to be soooooooo long winded. It is often a long and winding road that leads us to where we are today. There is always more to my story but for the sake of keeping things short, sweet, and to the point I will leave the rest alone for another day perhaps. Maybe soon though I will tell yall about how B.B. King changed my musical perspective, or Melvin Taylor humbled me. I have been into guitar WAY longer than the drums, but from the beginning I was tapping on my thighs...so I say I am a drummer. This forum is an amazing resource, and really you all are a great group of people. It reminds me much of one other forum I am on about vintage Fords. I went there to get info on my '49 and met some of the most generous, giving, and kind hearted individuals.
-Eric The Red-
