Similar story, but different...
As a kid, probably around 5-6, we went to some kind of horse show or something, I can't really even remember what it was, it just involved horses. I'd never really been around horses, horses are cool. As an aside, mankind owes a lot to horses, played a large part in progress and development. This kid played music, can't remember if there were drums, if so wasn't a main feature. Country music, kind of a swing, steel guitar pretty prominent. Older than me, but he was just a kid, kid voice, cowboy hat, a sort of a rhinestone suit, maybe 9-10, maybe 11. Imagine a young Michael Jackson singing country, that kind of kid voice. Sort of a local kid, but had a pretty damn good backing band. They were selling a record, so my mom bought one. Sort of a swing, but mature type lyrics for a kid, heartbreak type stuff. Strange Isn't It, on one side, The Flip Side of My Heart on the other..."You cheated me, and treated me, just like I was dirt(verse)...The flipside of my heart, belongs to someone new(chorus). The kid was pretty damn good, had a lot of potential.
Fast forward, I was probably around 18-19, I somehow started jamming on the side with these guys from out West, Oregon. Temp transplants, linemen or something. They were alright, but the truth of the matter I went over there mostly because they always had really good herb. Really good. Albert also had a lot stuff on VHS tape, cool music we would watch, some i'd never really been exposed to. I did have a John McLaughlin & the Mahavishnu Orchestra or whatever album I was given by someone, can't remember who, but that kind of stuff. Expanded my horizons a bit, watching that stuff, learning some of it. Man, we would get stoned as shit, big sacks of skunk weed. One night I went over there and Albert says, "Yeah, we have another guy coming over tonight, Stewart Mitchell." Me was like, Stewart Mitchell?...I recognized that name. Oh fuck, I'm stoned as shit, and I'm going to meet and play music with Stewart Mitchell, that kid i've had the 45 since I was a kid? Man, I was nervous. He arrives, I'm a bit shaky, but everything went pretty good, he playing a G&L, me on my Strat. He was really sharey, lol. He'd sing a verse, nod to me to sing the next, harmonies, he'd take take a lead break, nod to me for the next. Had a lot of fun. First and only time I met him. I think he had a lot of problems, mostly alcohol.
About a year later in a bar I ended up talking with a guy I knew of but didn't really know well, also a musician. Didn't really travel in the same circles. Cool guy, low key, Rocky. I was talking about how the drummer in my (rock) band,..well I guess it was really the drummer's band, a guy everyone knew..he was urging me a lot to, I don't know, put on more of a show, get in the audience's face. "Man, if I was a guitar player I'd...", that sort of thing. Rocky was like, "Nah man, I wouldn't worry about that, just play." As the conversation progressed he mentioned Stewart Mitchell, things he had said about me. "Me? He mentioned me? I only got to meet and play with him once." Told Rocky about that 45. Rocky says, "He knows talent when he sees it." Wow, I was humbled. Rocky was a damn good musician himself, but Stewart Mitchell mentioned me, from one jam session while I was absolutely stoned out of my gourd?
Truth of the matter, I wasn't really happy with the (rock) band I was in, partly the song list. I guess we have all gone through that, feeling a bit like an imposter, a poser, keep smiling, pretending like you're enjoying what you're doing. But the important thing is, I reckon, just keep playing.
I don't know, boring story I guess. But true.
