WEBVTT - Eric Johnson 0:00:08.640 --> 0:00:12.600 Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Lefts That Podcast. 0:00:13.160 --> 0:00:19.479 My guest today is guitarist extraordinary Eric Johnson. Eric, you 0:00:19.640 --> 0:00:24.440 posted instructional videos on YouTube during COVID. Tell me about that. 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:29.240 Well, it was kind of a crazy time, and so, 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:31.960 you know, with everybody being kind of insulated, I thought 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:33.880 what could I do to help? And I just thought 0:00:34.000 --> 0:00:40.440 doing all these lessons and asking people to contribute to 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:43.960 the food bank because I'm you know, hearing about people 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:46.360 not being able to eat. I mean, it's just like man, 0:00:46.560 --> 0:00:48.640 you know, so I thought, well, that's a little something 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:52.400 I can do, and it kind of gives way to like, well, 0:00:52.440 --> 0:00:54.760 what else can you do? You know what? What can 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:58.040 you keep doing? You know, and because a lot of 0:00:58.080 --> 0:01:01.320 people are struggling, you know, so I just tried to 0:01:01.320 --> 0:01:03.640 do something and it's something that people could get something 0:01:03.680 --> 0:01:04.440 out of, you know. 0:01:05.680 --> 0:01:09.039 Okay, So when you make a lesson, what goes through 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:10.840 your mind? What do you want to teach? 0:01:12.200 --> 0:01:14.160 Well when I did, I did a series of twenty 0:01:14.240 --> 0:01:17.760 nine lessons for that, and basically I just tried to 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:23.800 impart the little pieces of the puzzle that helped me 0:01:24.280 --> 0:01:28.600 garner and and create my style. Am I playing or 0:01:28.640 --> 0:01:31.240 my concept of music. And so I tried to keep 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:35.440 it in little encapsulated pieces. I'm like, oh, you know, 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:38.800 and they usually were only like two minutes three minutes long, 0:01:38.840 --> 0:01:40.360 and I would show an example, and I would just 0:01:40.400 --> 0:01:42.680 show like a little thing each time, like oh, here's 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:45.040 how you hold the pick, here's how you touch the string, 0:01:45.120 --> 0:01:50.960 and here's your intention philosophy or you know, all just 0:01:51.040 --> 0:01:53.840 all the different apertures of how to make music. And 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:55.680 so I just try to leave it in little tiny 0:01:55.720 --> 0:02:01.000 mintory vignette chapters and did twenty nine of them and stuff. 0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:03.320 Yeah, well, for those who haven't seen them, give us 0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:04.040 an example. 0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:07.640 Well, you know, I would do one like on, here's 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:09.560 how I hold the pick, you know, and here's how 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:11.760 I strike the string, And then I would play a 0:02:11.760 --> 0:02:15.760 little piece of music showing that. I would sometimes I say, well, 0:02:15.760 --> 0:02:19.880 here's if you don't quite strike it correctly in my opinion, 0:02:20.160 --> 0:02:22.160 and here's when you strike it correctly, and I'd show 0:02:22.200 --> 0:02:24.880 the difference in how it would sound, or how fretting 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:27.239 the instrument makes it different, the sweet spot of how 0:02:27.280 --> 0:02:30.440 you use your hand to fret the instrument. Like violin players, 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:35.560 they want to really have a positive intent in their 0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:37.760 contact of the string to help their tone. It comes 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:42.320 from both the picking and from the fretting. And or 0:02:42.360 --> 0:02:47.080 I do one on muting, which is it's kind of like, 0:02:48.200 --> 0:02:50.240 you know, when you paint, you paint all this stuff, 0:02:50.240 --> 0:02:52.360 but then there's all the stuff you don't paint that 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:56.240 creates the velocity of stuff you do paint. So when 0:02:56.320 --> 0:02:59.720 you're playing an instrument, you play the instrument, but then 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:03.720 you have to mute and basically turn off all the 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:06.240 parts that you're not playing. So that means you have 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:08.880 to use your hands to mute the strings where you're 0:03:08.919 --> 0:03:11.560 not playing, so that you can provide a purity to 0:03:11.639 --> 0:03:14.360 the notes that you are playing. It's kind of like 0:03:15.840 --> 0:03:18.639 muting the space between the notes, you know, so it's 0:03:18.680 --> 0:03:19.919 cleaner and pure sounding. 0:03:21.000 --> 0:03:24.160 Well, guitar playing, is it nature or nurture? 0:03:26.200 --> 0:03:30.880 Wow, that's a good question. I think that anything people 0:03:30.919 --> 0:03:32.799 do in life, if they have a passion or an 0:03:32.880 --> 0:03:36.040 interest or they a connection with it, then they automatically 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:42.240 have interest and enthusiasm and more galore to get out 0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:44.400 there and go for it, you know. But I think 0:03:44.440 --> 0:03:50.360 there's a people, maybe a certain talent that's intrinsic in them. 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:53.560 But I think it's mostly purported by your interest in 0:03:53.600 --> 0:03:56.960 your just dedication because you love doing it, you know. 0:03:57.800 --> 0:03:59.120 So how did you pick up the guitar? 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:04.040 When I was three years old? My my, this is 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:07.360 many many years ago. My dad had some you know, 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:10.000 back in the days before cable TV. He's like, he 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:15.080 built a fifty foot antenna outside and he had some 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:17.560 gentleman come over to help him set it in concrete 0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:19.080 and stuff. And at the end of it, one of 0:04:19.120 --> 0:04:23.320 the men named Marris Young, he got out of guitar 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:26.200 and plugged in outside and we had a little party 0:04:26.200 --> 0:04:28.400 because oh they finished the TV now you know, the 0:04:28.480 --> 0:04:31.640 area or whatever, and he's playing all this Elmore James 0:04:31.640 --> 0:04:34.240 and Jimmy Reid stuff, this distorted tone. I was just like, 0:04:34.320 --> 0:04:38.600 oh my god, that's just an incredible sound. But soon 0:04:38.640 --> 0:04:41.080 after that I started taking piano lists, and so I 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:45.279 kind of set aside the interest in guitar and just 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:48.240 studied piano for seven years. But and then I really 0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:51.200 got back into guitar when I was eleven, because that's 0:04:51.240 --> 0:04:55.160 when the you know, my brother had a friend named 0:04:55.160 --> 0:04:58.159 Bobby Spiller that played guitar, and he brought his band 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:01.640 over and they're doing all these Adventures tunes and really 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:06.240 early pop tunes like in sixty four sixty five, and 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:08.080 I just was really enamored with it. 0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:13.400 Okay, piano, to what degree do your skills remain and 0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:17.680 to what degree can you still read music? Well? 0:05:17.720 --> 0:05:21.000 I can read music. I'm a pretty poor reader, mostly 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:24.960 because I don't keep it up, but I usually kind 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:26.840 of learned by ear. I still play piano, and I 0:05:27.400 --> 0:05:30.560 play piano a little bit live, especially if I do 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:34.080 like solo acoustic tours, but I usually play a considerable 0:05:34.120 --> 0:05:37.320 amount of keyboards on my records, and I love piano. 0:05:37.400 --> 0:05:40.600 Piano is kind of like my favorite first instrument, even 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:43.320 though I'm not a great pianist by any means, but 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:49.520 I have the potential inside me to kind of understand it. 0:05:49.600 --> 0:05:51.800 So I try to push myself and do it as 0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:54.080 good a job as I can on playing it. 0:05:54.760 --> 0:05:57.200 Okay, Well, at this late date, there's so many different 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:02.320 kinds of keyboards with different sounds from rolling, there are synthesizers. 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:06.640 Are you also a fan and do you delve into that? 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:07.960 Are you more of a purist? 0:06:08.720 --> 0:06:13.320 I like acoustic piano mostly so usually when I if 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:15.279 I do use it live, I'll try to find a 0:06:15.320 --> 0:06:19.600 really good synth that has a very nice natural acoustic 0:06:19.800 --> 0:06:22.200 grand piano sound, and every once in a while I'll 0:06:22.240 --> 0:06:25.479 use like a Fender road setting, but mostly I just 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:29.800 go for just a natural sound. And when I do 0:06:29.839 --> 0:06:32.560 the solo acoustic tours, I'll actually use a grand piano. 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:35.960 We'll just mike it. But I like synthesizers and everything 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:38.359 to do. It's just not really something I've gotten into. 0:06:39.600 --> 0:06:43.400 Okay, so your brother starts playing, how much was it 0:06:43.480 --> 0:06:45.320 the Ventures? Because if you go back there, there was 0:06:45.400 --> 0:06:49.479 really a line of demarcation between The Ventures, the Four Seasons, 0:06:49.480 --> 0:06:52.080 the Beach Boys, and all of a sudden January sixty four, 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:56.720 the Beatles come along. So how influential for you was 0:06:56.800 --> 0:06:58.680 the British invasion in the Beatles? 0:06:58.960 --> 0:07:01.160 Oh? It was huge. It was huge. It was just 0:07:01.240 --> 0:07:10.040 like this incredible new entrance of music and people's personas 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:13.160 and lifestyle and stuff, and it was fascinating. I think 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:17.400 that no matter what I took in, it was always 0:07:17.560 --> 0:07:20.480 I always was really looking for guitar stuff at that point. 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:24.000 I was just just had an insatiable desire to learn 0:07:24.000 --> 0:07:29.440 more about guitars. So, you know, originally I think Nooki 0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:34.080 Edwards of The Ventures was a huge hero and somebody 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:35.800 I learned to play from. I would just pick out 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:41.120 his records note for note, and then then I got 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:46.320 into the Yardbirds with Jeff Beck and you know John 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:48.880 may On, the Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton, and just 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:52.360 sit and learn learn it note for note, which is 0:07:53.000 --> 0:07:58.360 I think a great ongoing chapter in somebody's evolution, you know, 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:00.840 to copy. I mean I remember when I was a 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:03.200 kid playing starting to play shows, and everybody's like, oh, 0:08:03.280 --> 0:08:06.640 you're just playing exactly like you know, Eric Clapton or 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:10.440 But I think I encourage kids to do that because 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:15.120 that's how you are able to study that screen of 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:18.800 expertise of how somebody does what they do, and then 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:21.600 you you you go from that. You don't want to 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:23.840 stay there. It's just, you know, you want to be 0:08:23.880 --> 0:08:27.760 your own person, your own own artists. But I think 0:08:27.800 --> 0:08:30.360 it's just a valuable step. So that's what I did. 0:08:30.400 --> 0:08:33.480 Those were the guys that started me. But I liked 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:35.720 the Beatles, I mean in the Rolling Stones. I loved 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:38.560 Brian Jones, like the early early early Rolling Stone stuff. 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:42.040 Okay, back in those days when we all picked up 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:44.560 the guitar, the big thing we did was we put 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:47.320 on the record and we kept dropping the needle. We 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:49.720 might slow the record down. Is that how you learn 0:08:49.760 --> 0:08:50.160 the notes? 0:08:50.280 --> 0:08:53.520 Or Yeah, it's way different than nowadays. If you got 0:08:53.559 --> 0:08:55.400 into a really hard lick a ope, okay, put it 0:08:55.440 --> 0:08:59.400 on sixteen. I can't play that fast, and then you'd 0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:00.920 have to like think in your mind, okay, I'm going 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:04.679 to transpose that up to octaves or whatever. Yeah, it's 0:09:04.800 --> 0:09:09.720 a way different day than nowadays. It's like that four 0:09:09.800 --> 0:09:12.839 minute mile thing, you know. And as we have more 0:09:12.880 --> 0:09:15.240 and more we go forward. I mean, you know, if 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:17.280 you look at people and what they do a motocross 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:19.439 where they jump up in the air and they flip 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:21.480 the bike and they flip themselves but they're not even 0:09:21.520 --> 0:09:23.080 connected to the bike. Then they come back and they 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:25.440 joined the bike and do that. I mean like forty 0:09:25.520 --> 0:09:28.280 years ago, fifty years ago, that's not possible, but you 0:09:28.320 --> 0:09:31.000 know it's possible now, you know, with the you know, 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:35.200 the advent of computers and people being able to slow 0:09:35.200 --> 0:09:38.679 stuff down and just you know, completely dissect something on 0:09:38.720 --> 0:09:44.640 a sonic level. It is really it's a faster learning process. 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:45.079 I think. 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:48.040 And did you ever take lessons? 0:09:49.160 --> 0:09:52.640 I took piano lessons for seven years, and I took 0:09:52.640 --> 0:09:56.200 guitar lessons for two or three months and I got 0:09:56.240 --> 0:09:59.560 in trouble for something I did. I don't know exactly 0:09:59.600 --> 0:10:02.000 I can what was it did, but my parents grounded 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:03.880 me and they said, okay, we're grounding you and we're 0:10:03.880 --> 0:10:06.600 taking away your guitar lessons, which I was like, oh no, God, 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:10.040 don't do that, you know, because but what i'd and 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:12.120 so what it forced me to do, said, well, I 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:14.400 can play piano. So I sat down with the guitar 0:10:14.480 --> 0:10:17.360 and the piano, and I started hitting the notes on 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:19.400 the piano and I would find him on the guitar 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:22.240 and I would just one by one find all the 0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:25.320 notes on the guitar on each string as relating to 0:10:25.360 --> 0:10:27.559 the piano. So I and then I realized there was 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:30.960 a symmetry there, and then I was say, oh, I see, 0:10:31.080 --> 0:10:33.200 so all I got to do is transfer that over 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:35.400 here and then I can kind of look at the 0:10:35.440 --> 0:10:37.760 guitar from a musical standpoint. 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:42.560 Okay, but there's some basic things, you know, making a 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:47.240 g chord, which fingers you use, slide which fingers you used? 0:10:47.240 --> 0:10:49.319 Did you just stumble in or someone say no, this 0:10:49.440 --> 0:10:50.280 is the way to do it. 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:53.199 Well, I had a friend named Jimmy Shade who was 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:55.240 ahead of me on guitar, and he would come over. 0:10:55.280 --> 0:10:56.679 He was about three years older than me, and he 0:10:56.760 --> 0:10:59.319 was playing in bands and stuff, and he'd come over 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:01.559 and show me a lot of stuff, and he had 0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:04.320 a great ear. He could pick anything off a record. 0:11:04.400 --> 0:11:08.319 And so between me just trying on my own and 0:11:08.679 --> 0:11:10.880 him showing me stuff, I was able to kind of 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:12.079 just keep going forward. 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:15.680 And at this late date, if I play you a record, 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:18.840 how long will it take you to learn that record? 0:11:20.559 --> 0:11:24.440 What depends on the piece of music, But it's I'm 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:26.920 able to do that. Just sit and, you know, work 0:11:26.960 --> 0:11:28.080 on it and learn it. 0:11:29.040 --> 0:11:31.559 Okay, so you're playing guitar. What guitar are you using? 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:36.439 Well, it's my very first guitar ever played, probably when 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:41.480 I was just turned eleven. Was went over with my 0:11:41.600 --> 0:11:44.000 dad to a friend of his and they had a 0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:46.719 little stell Acoustic and they let me borrow it for 0:11:46.760 --> 0:11:48.880 a few weeks, and my first song I learned was 0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:51.120 Your Cheating Heart. But then I had to give the 0:11:51.160 --> 0:11:53.719 Stella back. But because I was so enamored with the 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:57.920 ventures I was, I pleaded with my dad that I 0:11:57.920 --> 0:12:00.480 could get an electric guitar. So we went down to JR. 0:12:00.559 --> 0:12:05.200 Reid Music in downtown Austin and he bought me a 0:12:05.320 --> 0:12:08.959 white Fender. Well he we got on loan a Fender 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:14.080 music master, took it home and it was I guess 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:15.320 my dad was playing on the buy it, but it 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:16.920 was kind of like he was like, I don't know it, 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:19.040 we'll check it out. And I was. It was sitting 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:20.400 on the bed and I was jumping up and down 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:22.280 the bed and the guitar fell over on the ground 0:12:22.320 --> 0:12:25.320 and put a big scratch on it, and my dad said, oh, well, 0:12:25.360 --> 0:12:28.640 I guess we have to buy it now. And that's 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:30.280 how that I got the guitar. I don't know if 0:12:30.320 --> 0:12:32.040 he was playing, if that was, I don't know how 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:33.480 that all went. But he was kind of like, hey, 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:35.720 you put a big scratch on us, and now I 0:12:35.720 --> 0:12:37.160 guess we had to buy it. But that's how I 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:37.800 got the guitar. 0:12:38.480 --> 0:12:39.920 And what do you do for the amplifier? 0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:43.360 You know what? I did not have an amplifier, but 0:12:43.400 --> 0:12:46.440 we had a voice of music tape recorder, and I 0:12:46.520 --> 0:12:50.080 found out that if you put in record play and 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:52.880 then you put it in pause, you're putting it into 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:56.120 a monitor position. Although it's not running the tape, but 0:12:56.240 --> 0:12:58.000 it would monitor whatever he did, and then I would 0:12:58.000 --> 0:12:59.920 plug the It had guitar jacks on its I'd plug 0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:03.040 that and it actually had a killer tone, and I'd 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:05.720 just crank up the tape recorder and sit there and 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:08.599 play through it. And I actually blew the speakers in 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:12.120 the tape recorder, which is kind of crazy. But that 0:13:12.280 --> 0:13:17.920 was my first amplifier thing until my dad and I 0:13:18.000 --> 0:13:22.440 were we were at a shopping center in Austin and 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:25.080 there was this tiny little music store and right in 0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:29.360 the window they had this huge Fender Deluxe amp for 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:32.720 seventy five bucks. I remember that, and my dad bought 0:13:32.720 --> 0:13:35.040 that for me, So that was my first I was 0:13:35.040 --> 0:13:37.160 probably about twelve when I got that amp, and I 0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:39.079 finally I finally got an amp. 0:13:39.840 --> 0:13:41.760 And do you still have that guitar in that amp? 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:44.640 No, that would be so cool to have that. You know, 0:13:44.640 --> 0:13:46.839 it's like your toys from when you're five years old, 0:13:46.880 --> 0:13:48.680 you know, you think about them, Ah, that would be 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:51.920 You don't realize those little things in life are so big, 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:54.840 so important, so much more important than all the big 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:57.560 facade of all this. Ah, that's this and that or 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:00.400 you know this this is the little things that means something, 0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:01.520 But no, I don't. 0:14:02.679 --> 0:14:05.880 Okay. So you're growing up in the late fifties and sixties, 0:14:06.360 --> 0:14:09.880 you're in Austin. Austin has always been the weird part 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:12.520 of Texas. What was it like growing up then in Austin. 0:14:13.120 --> 0:14:14.920 Well, I didn't realize at the time, but it was 0:14:14.920 --> 0:14:18.640 a beautiful place because it had an influx of so 0:14:18.679 --> 0:14:24.080 many styles of music, namely country, but there were blues 0:14:24.200 --> 0:14:26.800 artists coming through there, and there was a lot of 0:14:26.800 --> 0:14:30.880 clubs playing rock music. And there was just a lot 0:14:30.920 --> 0:14:35.120 of live music, which proceeded why I got the name 0:14:35.360 --> 0:14:39.000 Live Musical Capital of the World. It was amazing how 0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:41.280 much there was going on there, and it was all different, 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:45.720 and of course you had the cage and influence, and 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:48.240 by the time I was getting serious about guitar, there 0:14:48.320 --> 0:14:53.480 was just all sorts of things to you know, people 0:14:53.520 --> 0:14:55.960 to go see. There was I learned to play a 0:14:56.000 --> 0:15:00.400 lot by Johnny Richardson from Georgetown Medical Band. I'd go 0:15:00.440 --> 0:15:03.000 hear him every Tuesday night at the Jade Room because 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:07.000 he was just a wonderful player, one of the great 0:15:07.200 --> 0:15:09.800 rock players, and him and Jim Mings and John Stahley 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:12.680 were just the great players of Austin during that time, 0:15:12.720 --> 0:15:15.800 and I'd just like admire these guys and go here 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:18.120 and play, and you know, they'd kind of let me 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:20.400 sneak in in the back when I was fourteen and 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:24.680 hear these people. But it was amazing. I remember the 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:26.560 first time I went to LA when I was like nineteen, 0:15:26.640 --> 0:15:29.080 I was like, where are all the live clubs? There 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:32.240 seemed to be less there as far as rock music 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:34.920 than there was in the central part of Texas, but 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:38.560 just a lot going on there. 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:41.240 Yeah. So what did your parents do for a living? 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:46.040 My dad was a MD. He was an antesthesiologist, and 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:48.080 my mom was a housewife. 0:15:48.720 --> 0:15:50.120 And how many kids in the family. 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:54.040 There's five of us, And where are you in the hierarchy? 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:57.680 I'm the youngest, you're the youngest. Yeah, do you get 0:15:57.680 --> 0:15:58.400 any advantage? 0:15:58.440 --> 0:16:00.920 Usually the youngest. They're very leaning with the young Yah. 0:16:02.000 --> 0:16:04.320 I don't know. I don't know if I got a 0:16:04.320 --> 0:16:08.320 lot of any advantage, but it was you know, my 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:11.680 mom was very supportive of the music because she was like, 0:16:11.760 --> 0:16:14.320 whatever makes you happy, and my dad, I think initially 0:16:14.600 --> 0:16:16.560 was not because he was worried when he saw I 0:16:16.560 --> 0:16:18.880 got so serious about it. Coming from being a doctor 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:22.200 and and rightly, so you know, it's like all of 0:16:22.240 --> 0:16:24.880 a sudden, you start growing your hair out and lose 0:16:24.920 --> 0:16:28.120 interest a little bit in pursuing school and want to 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:31.000 play rock music. I can see how, you know, because 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:33.520 you know, no parent knows, Oh yeah, it's okay, because 0:16:33.520 --> 0:16:35.480 he's going to do okay, you know, they don't know. 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:39.720 And but later later when he saw that things were okay, 0:16:39.800 --> 0:16:42.920 I think he became supportive about it. 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:46.120 And so you get really into music. You go to 0:16:46.120 --> 0:16:47.520 public school or private school. 0:16:48.360 --> 0:16:52.280 I went to public school until tenth grade, and then 0:16:52.320 --> 0:16:57.040 I went to a private school that's no longer here, 0:16:57.080 --> 0:17:00.560 but it was called Holy Cross High School. And one 0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:02.760 of the main reasons is because they would let you 0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:07.320 grow your hair long. You didn't have could you could 0:17:07.359 --> 0:17:09.879 drink cokes and class and it was kind of just 0:17:10.000 --> 0:17:13.960 real liberal kind of school where at that time, I 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:16.240 guess a lot you know, kids might not understand now, 0:17:16.280 --> 0:17:17.800 but there used to be a dress code and your 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:20.000 hair couldn't be too long. And I was like, oh man, 0:17:20.040 --> 0:17:21.720 I can't do that. I got to go to I'm 0:17:21.720 --> 0:17:23.400 going to go to this private school so I can 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:24.800 grow my hair out. 0:17:25.240 --> 0:17:29.280 Meanwhile, you're doing that. What are your four older siblings doing. 0:17:30.240 --> 0:17:37.760 Well, my brother he was he had already started college 0:17:38.600 --> 0:17:41.320 and at one point he went into the Navy for 0:17:41.600 --> 0:17:47.639 ten years and was on nuclear subs and stuff. My 0:17:47.720 --> 0:17:51.479 other sisters, well, one of them got married young and 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:54.480 moved to Alaska, and the other two went to college. 0:17:54.920 --> 0:17:57.240 One became a CPA and one became a nurse. 0:17:58.720 --> 0:18:01.280 Okay, so you were in school. Are you known as 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:02.760 the guy who plays the guitar? 0:18:03.840 --> 0:18:08.760 Well, a little bit. Yeah, yeah, I would play a 0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:12.360 little bit at talent shows and stuff. There was in 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:15.640 in junior high school there were there was a gown 0:18:15.720 --> 0:18:18.639 named Marina Jenkins and me. Uh, we were probably the 0:18:18.680 --> 0:18:22.840 only two people playing guitar at that time in junior 0:18:22.920 --> 0:18:25.960 high And I think I played a little bit at 0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:31.280 talent shows and but yeah. 0:18:30.359 --> 0:18:32.679 Well, were you the type of kid who picked up 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:36.679 the guitar and then suddenly stopped playing sports and stopped 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:39.760 hanging with their friends and was practicing for five hours 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:40.879 a day. What were you like? 0:18:42.720 --> 0:18:47.560 Yeah, that is what happened. I was really I was. Yeah, 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:50.840 I just never really did sports. I mean I loved 0:18:50.880 --> 0:18:54.440 you know, uh, swimming and water skiing and and and 0:18:54.480 --> 0:18:57.359 stuff on my own outside of school, But I didn't 0:18:57.359 --> 0:19:00.800 really pursue sports in school. By that time, I was 0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:05.359 so immersed in music. I would just I remember in 0:19:05.480 --> 0:19:07.680 ninth grade, I just tried to race home so I 0:19:07.720 --> 0:19:10.959 could see where the action is on TV. You know. 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:12.520 That was at three point thirty and I got out 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:14.080 of school like at three fifteen, so I had to 0:19:14.160 --> 0:19:17.560 run home. I wanted to see that. But by that 0:19:17.680 --> 0:19:23.720 point I was so immersed in guitar that you know, 0:19:23.760 --> 0:19:26.000 And there's two sides to everything. I think I missed 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:28.600 a lot of high school. You know, I don't mean 0:19:29.119 --> 0:19:32.680 physically missed it, just you know, just my heart wasn't 0:19:32.680 --> 0:19:34.000 in it, and you know, your heart can be it 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:36.320 in different ways. It didn't necessarily mean the subjects, but 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:40.200 you know, just people and getting to know people and 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:46.359 just having the experience of that community of even when 0:19:46.400 --> 0:19:49.879 you're a kid. But I think I was so just 0:19:50.359 --> 0:19:53.960 transfixed by music that I would I just kind of 0:19:54.119 --> 0:19:57.200 was a little bit absent as far as I would 0:19:57.200 --> 0:19:58.960 just sit in school waiting for it to be over. 0:19:59.119 --> 0:20:08.639 You know. Okay, so what point did you start playing 0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:13.240 in bands and what did that look like? Well? 0:20:13.320 --> 0:20:16.159 I started when I was I remember when I was 0:20:16.200 --> 0:20:18.719 like twelve, I played in this band called The ID, 0:20:19.000 --> 0:20:21.040 but we and I didn't even know what the name meant. 0:20:21.520 --> 0:20:24.080 The bass player named the ID, but we never really 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:26.000 played any game. I think we might have played one gig. 0:20:26.440 --> 0:20:28.679 But after that, when I was thirteen, I played in 0:20:28.680 --> 0:20:33.000 a copy band called The Sounds Alive, and you know, 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:34.840 my parents would come to some of the shows and 0:20:34.840 --> 0:20:37.040 I'd try to not fall asleep because some of the 0:20:37.080 --> 0:20:43.880 gigs went late, but that it was an interesting experience. 0:20:43.960 --> 0:20:49.200 But on vacation, I think I did that till I 0:20:49.280 --> 0:20:53.719 was fourteen. I went on vacation to Alaska with my 0:20:53.760 --> 0:20:56.439 parents for a month, which was really wonderful to go 0:20:56.480 --> 0:20:59.320 to Alaska. And when I came back, the rhythm guitarists 0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:02.080 had gotten better, and while I was gone, they said, well, 0:21:02.160 --> 0:21:04.560 we're firing you because the rhythm guitars has gotten better 0:21:04.600 --> 0:21:06.680 and he's learned how to play Jeff's boogie and we 0:21:06.720 --> 0:21:09.080 don't need two guitars. So I got fired from that group. 0:21:10.000 --> 0:21:13.360 And that's when I started just practicing more on my own, 0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:17.000 and I met a drummer named Vince Marioni and I 0:21:17.160 --> 0:21:19.920 entered a group that he led. When I was about 0:21:21.040 --> 0:21:23.959 late fourteen or fifteen years old, and we started working together. 0:21:25.640 --> 0:21:30.720 Okay, so take me up to graduating from high school. Well, I. 0:21:32.400 --> 0:21:35.080 When I was in tenth and eleventh grade, Vince and 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:38.480 I played together with Jimmy Bullock and we did this 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:43.160