If one were to take a good look at me, one could make a few assumptions. One would be that I eat too much of the wrong things and don't get enough exercise. That assumption would be true but that's not the one I want to talk about. Ever. If the honky tonk tattoos, band shirts and the "Junky" license plate on my car weren't enough to let you know where my passions lie, then the constant sound of fiddles and steel guitars blaring from my car and my house should help. Based on that, you might assume that is the only music I can tolerate. Someone who is as over-the-top about his music as I am can't possibly have an appreciation for anything else, right? Wrong. I am a true music lover which means I like everything. And I don't mean everything like this guy I know who says he likes everything EXCEPT rap, speed metal, country and a few other things. No, I actually mean it. Just because I don't listen to something, doesn't mean I don't have an appreciation for it.
I feel fortunate to have grown up in the 70's and 80's during a time when music went though so many changes. My dad had a lot of barbershop records that I loved to listen to. I remember when my parents split up in 1976, I would go for my every-other-weekend visit with dad and much to his chagrin would just want to sit around and listen to the records. He would want to take me to the zoo or the beach or some dumb thing he thought he was supposed to do. I just wanted to listen to music.
I went to a symphony performance once and remember being mesmerized by the string section, and for weeks afterward, I listened to nothing but classical. I'm not so sure about the guy who kept yelling "Freebird" during the performance, but I know I thoroughly enjoyed it. And later when I lived in Miami, I listened to a radio station every morning that had a program called, "Bach and Roll," that was nothing but uptempo kick-ass classical music. It was a great way to start the morning.
I'm not afraid to admit I was into disco. When I was in 6th grade I had a collection of silk-ish shirts that rivaled anything John Travolta had. In those days all I wanted to do was listen to the Bee Gees and dance. I was moonwalking way before that hack Michael Jackson was.
The disco years were short-lived though, and again thanks to John Travolta, we became a nation of Urban Cowboys. Once I heard Charlie Daniels, Mickey Gilley and Johnny Lee, I was hooked and wanted to hear more. It wasn't long before I discovered, Waylon, Hank Jr. and Bobby Bare. The so-called "ghetto blaster" or "boom box" became popular around then and I remember walking around with one perched on my shoulder blasting Johnny Paycheck. What a goofball I must have looked like.
For me, that country phase lasted five years from 1980 to 1985. I think it was around 1984 when the hair bands started to ooze into our consciousness. Most parties I went to played equal amounts of Quiet Riot, AC/DC and Van Halen along with the Hank and Waylon.
By 1986 I was fully immersed in heavy metal culture. I grew my hair as long as I could but mostly it grew out because I have really curly hair. I bought a bunch of Harley Davidson t-shirts even though I don't ride and even got one of my ears pierced. That same year I went to my first big concert: Van Halen on their 5150 tour. It was Halloween night at the Cow Palace in San Francisco and it was packed with hot girls wearing the skimpiest outfits you can imagine. How could you not get into that scene.
In 1990, I got a job working for a cable company that carried TNN (The Nashville Network) which my hometown cable company did not. By this time I was heavily addicted to the music video format and MTV so I checked out the country version on TNN while I was at work. I had largely been away from country music for 5 years but now all of a sudden there it was again with a whole new bunch of artists. Now you had Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Travis Tritt, Clint Black and many more and you know what? I loved it. I could not get enough of the new country sound. I was so addicted that I moved to Nashville in 1995 so I could be as close to the home of country music as possible. I was determined to get a job doing something in the country music business. It took 3 years but I finally ended up working for the channel largely responsible for my addiction.
Unfortunately my stint at TNN (and CMT, owned by the same company) ended way too soon due to a merger and layoffs in 2001. I hated to do it but I left Nashville because there simply was no work in television anymore. The music, however, stayed with me. In the years since Nashville, though, my tastes have evolved to where they are now which is mostly about Texas and California steel guitar-driven honky tonk music.
Everyone’s evolution has to start somewhere. Mine started with Barbershop and moved through rock, disco, classical and country. Some people experience greater evolution than others but that’s okay. Be who you are and like what you like but at the same time, feel free to open yourself up to new things. You just might hear something that will change your life. It’s happened to me a lot.
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