SLASH in Manila.
It's been 20 years since the musical bug bit me. I was about 15 back than and it was one summer hanging out at my best friends house reading comic books, skate boarding and listening to tapes of what we thought were the coolest bands then. This was the mtv era were big poofy hair, tight leather pants and make up on a man was considered cool. Fucking cool.
One faithful afternoon as we were listening to a bunch of casette tapes on my Miks', crappy little double deck radio. Axel Rose was screaming in the background and ripping us a new one and we were lovin it. (a grown man screaming like a spoiled little girl turned us on) We got to talking about how bad ass Appetite for Destruction was and how awesome it would be to rock out like them. (talk about youthful naiveté , we were two sheltered spoiled brats living in a posh gated community, who only got to experience the real world in the back seat of a chauffeured driven car) and I don't remember how exactly but we decided learning the guitar would be the best way for us to become the next guns and roses. We were going to be the next Slasheses.
We decided studying would be the fastest way to get there and Miks went ahead and enrolled himself in Yamaha for classical guitar the week after. I wasn't going to get left behind so I followed a week later under the same teacher. We were learning classical pieces. It was awesome... for like 5 minutes. Undaunted, we figured this was the way to get good fast so we sucked it up and learned a bunch of simple classical etudes for classical nylon guitar, how to sit with our back straight and the guitar positioned somewhere near your chest. As opposed to Slash who had his down by his knees. Totally uncool but whatever it took to get there.
We barely lasted 2 months.
Many bands later and a collective collection of at least 60 guitars and a dozen amps. (if you can't play, channel it elsewhere and gear acquisition was the next best thing) We found ourselves watching Slash in Manila. Man, it was inspiring, nostalgic, heartbreaking, rocking and entertaining. It was everything. I felt like I was in a time machine back in my teenage band playing the same guns and roses songs with Miks and learning it note for note and never finishing it because our egos thought we were better guitarist than we actually were.
What happened to Miks and myself? We never became the next guns and roses, nor did we become the next Slash but that hasn't stopped us from playing. And as I write this I'm reflecting on decisions I could have made to actually make that dream come tue. Should I have taken that trip to MI in LA back in college. Well if Schroedingers cats right, another me in a another reality is probably pursuing that now. I wonder how its going for him? Speaking of alternate realities, I can't imagine a parallel reality where I am not playing music or where Slash isn't my hero. That's just how inspiring he is. Slash, thank you.
It's been 20 years since the musical bug bit me. I was about 15 back than and it was one summer hanging out at my best friends house reading comic books, skate boarding and listening to tapes of what we thought were the coolest bands then. This was the mtv era were big poofy hair, tight leather pants and make up on a man was considered cool. Fucking cool.
One faithful afternoon as we were listening to a bunch of casette tapes on my Miks', crappy little double deck radio. Axel Rose was screaming in the background and ripping us a new one and we were lovin it. (a grown man screaming like a spoiled little girl turned us on) We got to talking about how bad ass Appetite for Destruction was and how awesome it would be to rock out like them. (talk about youthful naiveté , we were two sheltered spoiled brats living in a posh gated community, who only got to experience the real world in the back seat of a chauffeured driven car) and I don't remember how exactly but we decided learning the guitar would be the best way for us to become the next guns and roses. We were going to be the next Slasheses.
We decided studying would be the fastest way to get there and Miks went ahead and enrolled himself in Yamaha for classical guitar the week after. I wasn't going to get left behind so I followed a week later under the same teacher. We were learning classical pieces. It was awesome... for like 5 minutes. Undaunted, we figured this was the way to get good fast so we sucked it up and learned a bunch of simple classical etudes for classical nylon guitar, how to sit with our back straight and the guitar positioned somewhere near your chest. As opposed to Slash who had his down by his knees. Totally uncool but whatever it took to get there.
We barely lasted 2 months.
Many bands later and a collective collection of at least 60 guitars and a dozen amps. (if you can't play, channel it elsewhere and gear acquisition was the next best thing) We found ourselves watching Slash in Manila. Man, it was inspiring, nostalgic, heartbreaking, rocking and entertaining. It was everything. I felt like I was in a time machine back in my teenage band playing the same guns and roses songs with Miks and learning it note for note and never finishing it because our egos thought we were better guitarist than we actually were.
What happened to Miks and myself? We never became the next guns and roses, nor did we become the next Slash but that hasn't stopped us from playing. And as I write this I'm reflecting on decisions I could have made to actually make that dream come tue. Should I have taken that trip to MI in LA back in college. Well if Schroedingers cats right, another me in a another reality is probably pursuing that now. I wonder how its going for him? Speaking of alternate realities, I can't imagine a parallel reality where I am not playing music or where Slash isn't my hero. That's just how inspiring he is. Slash, thank you.
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