Funny story to reply to Notes comment about being as kind as possible.

My band was once playing in Canada. We were in some town that hasn't been discovered yet, all set up to play our week in the rock bar. About 2pm our agent up there called us asking if we were willing to move our whole stage to a local hockey rink ('ockey, eh?) to open a show. There was a postponement from Saturday to Monday because the ice under the floorboards was melting away and creating so much humidity the synthesizers for the headliner were not functioning normally and their act was very electronics base. That band was eponymously called Gowan, and at the time they were HOT in Canada. That guy, Larry Gowan, is now the keyboard player for Styx. We went, did a 35 minute set ("Not 34, not 36. 35!") of original stuff, and the crowd loved us.

The next day we were at McDonald's eating lunch. 3 young girls approached the table with paper placemats and pens and asked if the 4 of us who were there would autograph those placemats. With a straight face (though I was somewhat kidding) I said "Make you a deal. Give us 10 minutes to eat and we'll be happy to sign those for you, okay?" They all smiled and said "Sure!" As they were walking back to their table I looked at the 2 guys across from me and said "I have ALWAYS wanted to do that. Just nobody has ever asked me for an autograph before. Well, I had to sign those restraining orders, but..." We literally had to think on the spot and in the moment of something cool to say in the autograph. They came back over, we signed for them, and a 4th one for their friend who was not there, told them we appreciate them and they thought enough of that heard to ask for autographs, and they went on their way. So in the minds of three then 14 year old girls in Timmins Ontario, that day we were rock stars!

And looking back 35 years to 1988, I wonder if they still have those autographs and if they still think we were somebody.

The other side of that coin was that I was the firs one off the stage ramp. Gowan's tour manager literally grabbed me by the shirt and said "Why are you guys playing in (f'n) bars with a sound like that?" I answered "Because we need somebody like YOU to get us OUT of those (f'n) bars. Have a chat with our singers." We tore down. They chatted. And our leader did nothing with that possible foot in the door. That was his nature though. So afraid to fail that he won't try to succeed.

More ON topic, whatever level of success people here have achieved, nobody has done it with 8 and 9 figure bank accounts. I have never used cocaine. In fact despite 18 months in Vietnam where weed grew wild, I have never tried that either. No drugs ever. BUT, a large part of that may or may not have been that I never had money beyond keeping my head above water so I wasn't about to waste my money on something like drugs. With more money than I could count, who knows if I might have started having cocaine delivered to my house in a dump truck? Knowing myself better than anybody else possibly could, that answer is likely "yes". So in a way, being poor and a relative nobody has kept me away from things that would have killed me. I DID drink way to much but that is almost 30 years in my past now. NYE 2023 will mark 30 years since my last drink. That was the last real band show I ever did, and when I quit one it was easy to quit the other. Now, with my PTSD and introversion in full bloom, I am never in a situation where that resolve is tested, because I don't go anywhere or do anything. Then, being far more social, I was tested a few times but resisted the urge to revert to that lifestyle.

Last edited by eddie1261; 05/18/23 03:35 AM.