The Best Laid Plans....

Connecticut felt nice. But in some ways it also felt like a let-down. After all, I had done more living and experienced more new things in a year than most of my childhood friends would for their entire lives. One thing I noticed right away...most of my old friends had no desire to find out what life might be like outside of that comfort zone of hometown. They had  plans of their own, and for the most part, safety and constants were a big part of them. It seemed like most of the people I had grown up with didn't take a lot of risks. And it seemed like everything in my life was about  taking risks. I was comfortable taking risks. So leaving a successful band in Chicago, to start one of my own, seemed logical...but after I actually made the change, I started to become aware of just what I would need to do in order to put together a band that would meet my increasingly demanding standards. One thing I didn't realize until I had started, was just how much money was required to put together and maintain a really professional musical entity; it required employees, lots of gear, recording studio time, promotion, and that all costs money. Lots of money. And I had come back from Chicago with almost none. One didn't get rich playing the blues in 1973. But one thing I did know was... a whole lot of musicians...and like me, they all got high. And I also knew a lot of people who had access to very good drugs. So it became a "logical" leap for a risk-taker like myself to conclude that the best way to make the money I needed to put together this band was to finance it with the profits I could make by taking drugs from Peter...and selling them to Paul...at a slight mark-up. And so that's what I did. And I was very good at it. And I was very careful. If I hadn't grown up with you, or hadn't played music with you, or you weren't a well-known musician...then I wouldn't sell drugs to you. So if someone wasn't real close to me...or wasn't a musician like me...they couldn't get near me. And so began my self-imposed isolation from anyone who wasn't just like me, and the beginning of my drug problems, because the focus was very slowly and very subtly changing from music...to music, money and drugs. At this time,however, I think it was still all about the music. And I refused to cut any corners with it. Everything, whether it was the drugs, or the gear, or anything in my life...had to be first-class. The best gear, the best players, the best of everything...after all, one never regrets spending more to get the very best...I guess that was a lesson I learned from my Dad...that you always get what you pay for....