Life Behind The Guitar

From another blog dated April 15th, 2008


In such a vicious age for rock and roll music, it's a wonder that anyone even tries anymore. Stepping out onto a stage in front of a group of people who are not only unaware of the value of such a thing but also extraordinarily protective and selfish about music is like venturing beyond the trenches into no man's land. You will dodge bullets and, before you succeed, you WILL fail.

So why do we do it? It's simple: We don't have a choice. Something beyond us selected us and said, "This is what you're going to do," and without even realizing it, we accepted that quest and have thus been at it ever since.

You're at a concert, or a local venue/bar and there is a band on stage. You immediately listen to see if you approve--and wait for someone to make a mistake. Have you ever considered what it might be like on the other side of the guitar?

I'll tell you what it's like. It's as if you have torn open your breastplate and have exposed your heart for an entire roomful of people to see...and have left it wide open to be spit on, praised, rejected or ignored....etc. So much heart goes into what we do, and it's not because we want you to love us, or give us your praise. It's because we have to do it. Some of us are doing this because we love it so much that it hurts. We want so badly to reach someone with our music, our lyrics... our creation.

It's so hard to get anyone to even listen anymore, but we're still out there spilling our blood onto the strings of a guitar and smearing it in with our fingers. We sing until our vocal cords are swollen, calloused and weak. Yet, people aren't listening.

Is it going to stop us from doing it? Never.

I live behind my guitar and I breathe the vibration. It's an escape from a world that has become so concerned with itself that it has forgotten about what's beautiful about it. It's a vacation from perfection and an adventure into the sin that is melodic copulation.

To you, I may be just another local musician trying to become a rockstar, and if I were watching from the outside I would say you were right. But when I'm up there underneath the lights, whether you're listening or not, I'm belting my entire being into the void and the gratification and vindication that I get out of that is enough for me.

So what can I say about life behind the guitar other than if you've never been there, you can never even BEGIN to fathom what it's like. There's something about it that nobody else can ever understand.