My story short and sweet is I come from a very long line of Anarchistic Pagans. My Irish ancestors came here in 1781 to get Away from the church. Some went to Kansas others went to Texas. We've fought in every war except the Vietnam war. Even fighting each other during the civil war be it through political stripes. My family has had abolitionists and slave owners. Both at the same time. Eventually my ancestors did come to adopt a very subtle form of Christianty into their lives I think more as a moral compass though then as a commitment to spirituality.
My dad is more obstinate when speaking about politics so my guess is that during the 60's my mom was the fighter and he was the provider and follower. He's an amazing harmonica player and has always been deeply committed to 50s and 60s blues music. My dad worked his entire life from age 18 to retirement as a switchman for the Missouri Pacific Railroad. Which eventually was bought out and radically shifted from what he described as a non stop party for 20 years into an extremely annoying and ghastly place to work once it was bought out by the Union Pacific in the 80's thanks to Reagan's corporate policies. He spent time in the national guard ,which he joined while intoxicated when an enlistment officer talked him and a buddy in to joining up. He always enjoyed some daily tokage till the railroad made him quit which lead him to become more closely infatuated with the bottle. Jack Daniels to be specific, to which he shares the same first name with.
My mom made a living as a secretary and then an accountant most her life but the most important thing to her is family. She instilled in me my passion for politics. Shes a through and through hippie. She never missed a Ram Dass appearance, knows astrology better then anyone I've ever met, and was quite the peacenik during the vietnam war. My mother is much more into the psychedelic rock like Led Zepplin and Cream and soulful r-n-b type stuff. like Paul Butterfield and Quincy Jones.
My folks were hippies to the bone going to 3 day concerts all over the country, selling grass and hash oil which my cousin would bring in in scuba tanks from Jamaica and ship through the U.S. Army from where he was stationed in Germany in the late 60's and early 70s. They joined protests in San Francisco. My Mom recently found a Pilot that was shot down and captured in Vietnam's family whom she wore a MIA bracelet with his name and ID on for years and mailed it to them after finding his family on the net and briefly speaking to through emails.
On my Moms side, my grandma was the genuine article when it came to southern traditionalists.Raised on a farm in Texas that her family inherited due to an ancestors enlistment to fight in the Spanish American war. Hayes county is my families land. it resides just south of Houston. She met my grandpa after the second world war at a homeless vets shelter in Kansas City that she volunteered as a nurse for. Together they would go to sing songs at the local orphanages and slowly created a bond that would last for more then 10 years.
My Grandpa was a country musician who was nick-named hop for his lack of family and his constant "hopping" from family to family. There's a photo of his band in my pics on myspace. They traveled the country together with a traveling circus and he had many decent selling albums out in the late 40's and early 50s. My grandmother eventually divorced my grandpa when he became a depressed alcoholic with PTSD after his career finally sputtered out in the 60s. Years later she got remarried to another man with southern heritage who treated her with a great amount of respect.
On my dads side I have truly decent people who always worked hard. Always Voted democratic except for Ike (everyone loved Ike) and built a house with their bare hands down at Lake of the Ozarks where me and my dad ended up spending most of our summer vacations together after my folks were divorced in the lat 80's. They come from completely German descent both my egrand father and grandmother whom had only been American for 3 generations. My father being the 4th American born. My Grandfather enlisted in to the Army during world war 2 which I find to be a great statement of patriotism considering he would be fighting his own grandfathers countrymen. He worked in construction and played a major role in digging and laying the foundation to Americas very first shopping mall.
My grandmother which is known to us as "Grammy" grew up in a house without electricity and had 12 brothers and sisters. She is the youngest. She can be quite the tart at times but now in her later stages of life has become quite the sweetheart. She's told me wonderful stories about when she was young about how before radio her family would sit around candle light and tell ghost stories while brushing each others hair.
When I was two weeks old I was in Kansas City's worst flood in history. Which we barely escaped with our lives in. I was then transplanted into small town America. My father built a house deep in the woods which was subsequently 3 miles from where Frank and Jesse James grew up. we had ducks, a goat, 3 dogs, 2 cats, and a garden to boot which was always a pleasurable environment. Being raised by extremely cultured people and then stuffed into a class raised by ignorant people never worked out for me. My mom started a business selling glow sticks at concerts which was very beneficial to me in my quest to follow my grand fathers foot steps in the music industry. I ended up seeing the first lollapalooza and meeting tons of people I idolized which taught me of the falseness of the cult of celebrity worship.
I've always had a natural talent when it comes to playing music. I started playing piano when I was just 6. My sister was getting piano lessons and when she would finish I'd jump on to which my grandma would yell at me "thats not a toy" and kick me off but as soon as they would leave I'd start playing again. Which I think was actually beneficial in my interest to play because things are always more interesting when you know you're being bad. I played trumpet in grade school and can still play one pretty good. I picked up guitar when I was 9 after My dad bought a guitar on a whim. I soon started bands and even played a few high school pep assemblies and talent shows by the time I was 12.
My family life turned to shit in the 80s though when my folks got divorced and after my mom remarried. My older sister whom will remain anonymous left home and married her high school sweetheart and I ended up leaving home at age 13 with nothing but my guitar and a back pack full of clothes. I ended up burning down a barn and a 108 year old Christian church (I Loathe Christians), after which I lost some of my dearest friends to the prison system after we got caught which I narrowly escaped sentencing solely due to my age. Being forced into indentured servitude (community service 3000 hours) but I served it working in an old folks home which was actually a very enlightening experience. Listening to the people whom lived there's life stories when the nurses weren't forcing me to do busy work. Soon after I dropped out of high school and hit the road.
I moved from town to town house to house mostly surviving off of the kindness of women who were always eager to have me as their house pet. I've been with every ethnicity of women on the planet but I think I like Irish girls the most. Freaks flock together I suppose. A friend and I traveled non stop all around the midwest after becoming obsessed with the flaming lips. After about the 10th show we'd seen we eventually started to become friends with Wayne Coyne by simply camping out in the parking lots and waiting for him after the shows. I think my meeting rock stars and celebrities at an early age made this easier to accomplish. He taught me many a detail about technology, chord framing, lyrical content, and a never ending willingness to try something new. By the late 90's he had become too much of a celebrity for me to stomach any longer though so my commitment to them as a fan began to waiver and I started searching for other types of music that would wet my appetite. Which eventually led me to roots music which is now by far my favorite type of music besides the occasional bizar movie soundtrack or insane industrial experimental music like Whitehouse.
I moved to California a year and a half ago once I started to mature and settled in with the love of my life Regan, I've been with her for over 5 years now. We met on the net like most people do today though when we started dating it had not yet become the established norm that it is today. Her family has been very kind to me and I enjoy their company a great deal. San Francisco has always been a place of interest to me because of it's radical past and I find myself feeling quite comfortable even though I'm not at all the average type that resides in this locale.
list of bands I've been in since age 15
typhoid mary - skater thrash punk
left - progressive grunge
organized static - total noize
Puppy Katt - guitar drum duo
dead meat - think gg allin meets judas priest
hevy duty - classic garage rock
and now forever to be known as OLD HACK.
Thanks for reading.
