When I first started out, this would have been in the early 80s, I noticed the jealous ones. Some were musicians, some were booking agents, some were radio people, and some were not in the music business at all.
I remember a guy who worked with me at Higa's Automatic Transmissions in the early 70s. Al was the top R & R guy at the shop. One day were were on our lunch break just talking idly, enjoying our lunch. Out of the blue he says to me, "Nobody cares what #2 or #10 does, they want #1". I don't know why he would have said that to me, because I was not very good at anything that he knew about. I was new at transmissions, I was mostly cussing out the cars. There was never any discussion about my Little League Baseball time, or my High School Basketball time, all he saw that I was next to incompetent at transmissions. Maybe he saw something in my that I didn't, who knows, but I remember that to this day.
So, after 5 years of working on automatic transmissions, first Higa's, then AAMCO in Escondido, then AAMCO in San Diego, one day I said the hell with this, I'm done, done working myself half to death, and done putting up with the likes of Ron Smith - boss man who had it in for me. By this time, I had gotten good at transmissions - thanks mostly to Al at Higa's - taught me a lot of tricks, and of course, basics. So, after selling everything I owned - transmission tools, furniture, car, motorcycle, I went to Guitar Center on C Street in San Diego, bought a Les Paul Custom, then down to a tiny music store in Pacific Beach, bought a Fender Super Reverb amp. I decided to head back to Hawaii. I knew the area, I knew the military clubs, figured I could get a better start there than in San Diego. There was also that the guys I'd been hanging around with for the past 4 or 5 years did nothing but try to establish their superiority over me, and that got really old, so, figured I would get out of San Diego.
I arrive in Hawaii, tried to start a band with an uncle who played guitar some. This is the uncle who used to take me to Palolo Housing (The Projects) and play at parties that his family would have. I wasn't good by any means, but it was still a good time. That didn't work out so well, his heart wasn't in playing music, so we parted ways, not good ways, either, but well, such is life.
I started to make my way around to some of the military clubs to talk to managers. At the same time I found some guys who I thought I might be able to play with. At some point, a guy, Eddie Parales, saw me at the Fort Shafter Enlisted Men's club. He had been playing in a Country band in a little country bar called Ducky's Silver Spur - it was way out in Ewa Beach. He told me they were looking for a guitar player, and if I would be interested in auditioning. I said I would, even thought I didn't know the first thing about Country Music, or much about lead guitar. Well, wouldn't you know it, I got the job. Looking back, it was probably because I was no threat to anybody. Of course, I didn't think that way that early in my life, but I'm pretty sure that's why I got the job. Eddie was always good to me, encouraging, telling me I was doing fine, even when I wasn't. The other guys, kinda not - they had no problem telling me I was weak, gave me a hard time about pretty much everything. I guess me being who I am, these guys' harping didn't really affect me, I just did the best I could, learned what I could. This is where a couple of the other old timer musicians (not the ones in the band) took a liking to me, taught me stuff, encouraged me. There was the one guy, Nick Masters, 60 something year old guy, used to play with Bill Haley and the Comets (after their heyday), who would come in, play my guitar, do his flashy stuff, while sneering and snickering at me. Same it didn't really affect me, I noticed it, but I guess I just didn't think much of it. This was the first I noticed the insane jealousy of so many musicians, including 2 of the 3 guys in the band I was in. These guys, as well as the girl singer, whose band it was, would say less than pleasant things about the other musicians in the circuit. I vividly remember the horrible things they said about one of the musicians - Earl Hughes. The guy was very good, good lead guitar player, good fiddle player, good pedal steel player, and good singer - in fact, exceptional at all of it. He had a good look, and his stage presence was also exceptional. There was also that the guy I replaced, hated me with a vengeance. I ran across his Facebook page a few years ago, tried to friend him, but I guess his hatred for me was still with him, so, that was the end of that. I played in that band for about five months, witnessing the backstabbing, the badmouthing, the resentment. Being new at music, I had no idea just how intense this kind of thing was, I was so naive, and didn't care to take part in any of it.
So, five months of this, and while some of it was not the greatest time, some of it was great, especially the couple of old timers who were teaching me stuff. What I learned from those guys was priceless, and I'm thankful for them to have made the effort to share their experience and knowledge with this young kid who could barely play.
The next chapter of my playing music was with J.T. Cardens, another somewhat old timer who knew what true Country Music was. I guess I'll talk about that in my next post :D .
We with all my videos and music, all production, all instruments, and all vocals by me : D.
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