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In 1986, I was a young and handsome pup with flowing locks, a comb in my pocket, and a can of Aqua Net in my hair. So many events were compressed into this year that even now it seems that so much more than just ONE year happened. Among the highlights of 1986:
- I turned 16
- I got my driver’s license
- My parents got divorced
- I crashed at least one car
- I went off the deep end
- My emotions flat-lined
- I joined my first band

I was briefly a member of a fantasy-metal (remember that term?) band called, appropriately enough, Fantasia. Awesome? Yes. I had to audition. The lead guitarist and the bass player came over to my house and listened to me play the piano. Then they told me I was “in”. Awesome? Totally. We went into the studio, a most incredible and rare experience in a small town in the ’80′s, and I laid down some keyboard tracks and back-up vocals on a song called “Young and in Love”. The lead singer was a screamer! Man, could he wail. They handed me a mix on cassette of the song and I played it for 24 hour straight. Then I settled in to wait for stardom. Or for our big concert. Or…for at least a practice session. It didn’t happen.

Music industry lesson 1: The “Biz” is filled with Talkers. The do-ers are harder to find.

My second band experience was much more fulfilling. The bass player’s parents had a large bar band and we got to use their practice studio, instruments, and music sheets. We chose from songs that we thought we could learn. Our group ranged in age from 15 – 17 years-old and we learned mainly old classics, “Old Time Rock’n'Roll”, “Johnny B. Good”, and my favorite, “People Get Ready”.  I will never forget our first gig – the Christmas Party at a Red Vue Inn Lounge in Grants Pass. Being teens, they let us in to play and gave us non-alcoholic Pina Colladas to drink. We were nervous and ran through our whole set in about 30 minutes. They didn’t care. They told us, “Play it again!”

The years have passed and we’ve gone our separate ways. A few of us have reconnected thanks to the ‘net. The drummer, Erik Truelove, is a successful musician in Arizona. See his website here: www.ErikTruelove.com and though my only use for Aqua Net hairspray now is to burn out Yellow Jackets from their nests, I still love to play and sing “People Get Ready”. I was playing in the studio the other day and recorded this little tid-bit:

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