How I Remembered I Like to Dance

I was perhaps 11 years old. We were living at the Naval Training Center in Bainbridge, Maryland. My father was the General Manager for the Chief’s Club, a pretty good gig for for a guy like Alfred, or Jerry as his friends knew him. And for some unknown reason, Gary Puckett and the Union Gap was playing a show at the amphitheater at the Naval Base. Mike really, really, wanted to go. He would have been about 18.

My parents agreed, on one condition. “You have to take Chris.”

I wonder if that's the real reason we don’t speak today?

I was too young to remember the details but I remember two things that night; my brother was pissed, and I saw my very first live music show.

By the time I was a teenager, music was a big part of my everyday life; Lynyrd Skynyrd, Aerosmith, Grand Funk Railroad, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin. The list went on.  I remember saying, “But Dad, it says, ‘To Be Played at Maximum Volume’,” after he yelled at me for playing David Bowie so loudly in my room.

I didn’t see a lot of live shows as a young man but in my mind, I played in countless. I typically played lead, not Gilmour. I was the one playing Blackie, not Eric. I can tell you what it feels like to play the most amazing guitar riff in front of thousands; yet while I own two guitars, I can barely play two chords. 

Through junior high, I played clarinet and saxophone but never as good as I was on the guitar. I spent a short time in the chorus and learned I wasn’t a vocalist but man can I sing the blues with a Stratocaster in my hands. And one thing I knew for sure was that I loved to dance, although I did not attend a single prom or take my girlfriend dancing, even once.

Ten years ago this month, as I was about to turn 50, I left my wife of 16 years, my 14-year-old son, 11-year-old daughter, and I moved in with a woman 15 years younger than me.

How did I get here?

She loved music more than anyone I had known. You could see it on her face and in how she moved when listening to music. She turned me on to some great new music and she turned me on to the music I had loved so much, so many years ago. She introduced me to that young guitar player I once knew. Her love of life and music was intoxicating.

Together, we were so much less.

How did I get here?

It all started when I stopped playing Voodoo Chile.

Now 10 years later, as I am about to turn 60, I see how truly blessed I am. I have my two wonderful children in my life, a good job, a comfortable home, there is almost always music on in the house, I get to see a lot of live music with friends

And dance with my wife.

How did I get here?

It all started when I picked up my Stratocaster again.