11:30 PM, 9/11/00, near the Tennessee/Kentucky border
Hello fellow travelers,
I am nearing the end of my birthday, sitting at my desk aboard the almost empty Baby Bus (in case you just tuned in, all the regular passengers on this bus are the youngest siblings in their families--Glen, Todd, Jeanne and I--thus the nickname). This trip started in Montgomery, AL, destined for York, PA and changed into a trip to Baltimore, MD around Huntsville, AL once we spoke to our tour manager who is there already. So we added a few more miles in the process, but once you cross the 800 mile mark, what's another hundred miles? Answer: Another hundred miles. ;-)
Billy picked me up at my mother's house around noon, just as I was downloading some software to update her computer. Meanwhile she was uploading some home cooking into go containers for our two-man trip to Maryland. Somewhere outside of Nashville I remembered the food was in the fridge, and almost hurt myself jumping up to go for it. Corn on the cob, fried okra, broccoli corn bread and a chicken and rice thing. All home-style Southern cooking, and if you have had it before, you are probably getting jealous. If not, someday you will understand. It was so good and yet incongruous standing there road surfing in the bus galley while eating my mother's cooking that I was laughing to myself as Billy drove. As soon as I finished my meal, I made Billy a plate, took it to him and switched places, taking the wheel for a while so that he could share the experience. Billy is from Mississippi, so he speaks okra. You might have thought we were out of our minds, high on my mother's food. I suppose in a way we were. It has been a few years since anything more mind altering than that has passed between my lips. Let me think about that one...
At any rate, as I sit here writing my first thoughts since turning 47, I am wondering how different it is to be a 47 year old guy than it was being a 23 year old guy when I joined STYX on December 17, 1975?
In some ways it feels very much the same. I am just as happy being on the road as I was then. I still pick up the phone to call JY like I did then. Shows are being booked and contracts issued and finalized. A new record (CD) is being released, and there is excitement all around for STYX. 25 years later and these things remain constant.
On the other hand, my idea of partying has changed radically. No shots of tequila, no champagne toasts, no cooler filled with Heineken, no killer buds. And you know, I don't miss it one bit. Perhaps I should miss the romantic concept of it, the beer ad with the girls in bikinis playing volleyball or whatever, but let's face it, it hardly ever ended being one of those... I don't miss winding up in the emergency room getting stitches--again. No more taking the edge off. These days I really quite like having an edge.
I know I have changed just a little bit since I was 23 because I am goofy excited by two gifts Jeanne got for me. One, a signed first edition book of poems by Allen Ginsberg, signed the year he died, the second a signed first edition of a William S. Burroughs' book that Jeanne got from an old friend of Burroughs who lived with him in Lawrence, Kansas during his "Shotgun Art" phase. Had someone given me these for my 23rd birthday I would have not only been extremely confused and disappointed, but probably wondered why in the world someone would have ever thought I might like something like that.
Now I look at these men with great curiosity and reverence, though not necessarily envy. They were fearless in living their off beat lives on their own terms and I am fascinated by them, but my appreciation is more for the words that came from them as they lived the fireball of their existences. They were in the midst of carving their legacies when I was 23 (could have fooled me), but I am just now beginning to discover and appreciate them.
I guess it's never too late to discover treasure. Even if you are the last person on the block. Treasure is treasure. I never appreciated Bob Dylan until recently. He was worth the wait. I heard a DJ mention that the pop stars of today don't listen to Bob Dylan. I thought to myself, "Yet..." When they do, they will love him.
At 47 I am beginning to realize that although I didn't go to college (I graduated High School in summer school in 1971) I'm a fairly well educated guy. There are plenty of smarter folks out there, but my smarts have gotten me plenty far. I never learned to read music, but I have learned a ton of practical theory over the years. Although I am the tallest member of my family, I have accepted the fact that there will probably be no NBA scouts banging on my door (do I have to give up THAT dream?). And best of all, the road remains open, endless and full of possibilities for this little 5 piece combo called STYX.
Who knew that in the year 2000 we would looking down the barrel of a tour itinerary which reads Part IV on its cover? We are. And before this tour is through there will be Part V, VI, and VII. Now, before we have even gotten to Europe, there have been discussions of returning for a more extended tour, including many other countries next time. STYX is like a giant onion these days. The more layers you peel back, the more are revealed.
I wish this kind of 47th birthday for you. For myself, I look to the heavens and all I can think to say is, "Thank you."
Did you think I was going to say "Life is good?" Okay, I guess I said that too.
