Song Insight: “Everything’s Gold”

Composer: Greg Hintermeister, ©1999
Arranged: Greg Hintermeister
Performed by: Greg Hintermeister
Recorded: 2011 in Hint of Light Studios
Emotions: Pride, Regret, Despair, Loss

Listen: 
Other song insights

Background:  
What’s your top priority in life?

This song is about a man whose top priority in life was his career. Somewhere far down the priority list were his friends, kids, wife,  and eventually Jesus. We meet him as he reaches the apex of his career. He’s at the top. Everything around him is gold…hotels, money, power, frequent flyer status, prestige, perks.

…but he ends up filled with regret, loss, and loneliness.

I’ve met some people where I work like this. Some of their casual comments about the hours away from home…their “dedication”…it makes me sad.

This will be my 19th year at my career, and I’ve tried to balance this line between a job I really enjoy and the family I love. I think I’m doing OK since my kids still miss me and complain when I travel. But it is hard. I know there are times I am so focused on work that while physically home, I’m very far away. I also don’t think I take the kids on little ‘outings’ enough. I really need to look more at how my role model balanced his career and kept his priorities straight.

Who is my role model?
My Dad.

While he was very successful and sure seemed at the top of the rung in his career, I never felt like he was absent growing up. In fact, what I remember is how much we did together…

I remember our play wrestling (when we were both a lot younger)

I remember playing catch (and a wicked curve ball I could never hit)

I remember the Bible-study parties they’d throw with their friends (and the bursts of laughter as I was trying to sleep)

I remember Saturday fishing trips to catch crappies (Lake Clearwater…so much fun)

I remember the countless hours at his dad’s lake home helping maintain it (and his wonderful decision to stop raking the seaweed off the beach…since it was usually delegated to one of us boys)

I remember the trips he would take with his wife (and, the way-out-of-control parties I threw while they were gone…but that’s another story for another time…)

He always seemed to have his priorities straight.

Recently my dad wrote me that he felt at a loss for words and embarrassed when co-workers talked about hobbies because my dad didn’t have any.

Now that I think through this, I’m not so sure.

I define a hobby as something one spends time doing solely because he loves doing it and is passionate about it; not expecting any monetary reward.

I think his hobby was his relationships. His kids, friends, wife, and Jesus…

…and at the top of the list has always been his relationship with Jesus. I’ve never seen someone pour over the Bible the way he does (then and now).

Inspiring.

Thank you, Dad.

You showed by example how to love the challenges of a career, and how important it is to love what you do for a living. Yet you also showed by example that when you put your wife, kids, friends, and Jesus at the top of your priority list…

…that’s when everything truly is gold.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Technical Specifics:
Recording Unit: Cakewalk MIDI software, Soundscape DAW
Drums: Roland XV-5080
Percussion: Egg shaker, Tambourine
Acoustic Guitar: Ovation 1712 Custom Balladeer
Piano: RD-500
Electric Guitar: Paul Reed Smith Hollowbody II (rhythm)
Guitar Amp: Fender Hot Rod Deluxe
Electric Guitar Mics: close: Shure SM57;  3ft back: CAD E100
Acoustic Guitar Mics: CAD E100, Rode NT1
Bass: RD-500

Recording Specifics: 
Since it had been 12 years since I composed and performed this song, I wanted a bit more modern feel to this song. I asked my oldest son to drum along to the chorus while I played. I recorded his drumming then recreated it on the XV-5080 unit. I’m so glad I did that as he provided a great kick-snare beat that I would have never thought of.

I then added piano, keyboard bass, acoustic guitar, then distorted electric guitar. I did record distorted electric for all of verse 3 and the B section but reduced it to just the B section in order for the dynamics of the song to keep growing.

Part of the song sound airy and open and I fought my instincts to fill it with little guitar or piano fills…I love doing those…but I felt the song needed to breathe since the character is really desperate and lost. I am VERY happy with how this turned out sonically. I finally have a decent mastering process using Audacity where I use the Leveller, EQ, Normalize functions, and then export to iTunes.

Composing Specifics: 
This is the first song I wrote for a crossWinds church service. It was performed on January 17, 1999. The topic was “Intentional Living: People - priority #2”.

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Lyrics ©1999 Greg Hintermeister 
Verse 1: 
Look at me Look what I’ve done 
I’m at the top of the ladder Top of the rung
Everywhere I go people say to me 
hey, Everything’s Gold

Verse 2: 
Look at me Look what I’ve done 
I’ve spent a lifetime dreaming no time living
But everywhere I go people say to me 
Everything’s Gold Everything’s Gold...

Verse 3: 
Look at me What have I done 
I’ve sacrificed my friends, my kids, the love of my life for the good of the selfish one
Still everywhere I go people say to me 
hey, Everything’s Gold

B Section: 
I’d trade it in a second for a trace of happiness 
I’d give my entire world 
for a glimpse of what I could have had 
instead of loving all I’m worth

Verse 4: 
Look at me Look what I’ve done 
I’m at the top of the ladder it’s so dark and alone
Still everywhere I go People say to me 
Everything’s Gold

End: 
Everywhere I go I see it’s all worthless... 
but Everything’s Gold 
Everything’s Gold 
Everything’s Gold

“Fun” Test + Fail = Peacemaker

It all started with a test.

A test to see how much fun was I having in my life.

I Failed. Miserably.

But that very day God provided a solution…

…become a Peacemaker. 

More specifically, become an international-traveling, life-loving, experience-embracing, concert-screaming, “Here’s To Life!”-saluting Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers fan.

Now, 3 years, 9 shows, 7,406 miles, 2 countries, 5 cities, dozens of shots of tequila, 9 albums, and 8 hotels later, I can truly say I am having more fun, soaking in better music, enjoying a better marriage, drinking better tequila, and am more energized to take a big bite out of this beautiful world than I ever thought possible.

How did this happen?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was May 6th, 2007. My wife was gone on a weekend getaway, and I was home in the middle of another “Hey I’m almost 38 and I need to behave like an adult with 4 kids and a mortgage that won’t quit so don’t tell me I need to squeeze fun into the middle of my busy, career-building, debt-soaked life” day.

Little did I know God had already put in motion a grand plan to put a smile back on my heart.

At church the topic was “God Loves Fun”. The main point was that God loves it when we have fun…good ol’ fashion barn-burning, doesn’t-have-to-be-spiritual-to-be-God-affirming fun. During the service we took a test to measure how much fun we were having in our lives.

I failed, and not just a “hey, maybe you should see an extra movie once in a while” kind of fail, but a “Sheesh, you’re stifling your life by taking it all way too seriously” kind of fail.

Then the cavalry rode in to rescue me…

…with my wife leading the charge, a glyph flag waving in the wind, and a rock n’ roll band singing about Mexican moonshine, contraband, hourglasses, grains of rice, and leaky little boats.

The wife pulled into the driveway happier than I’ve seen her in a long time. She had just experienced her first Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers (RCPM) concert the night before (Cinco de Mayo) with her friend Lisa and was already breathing in the good vibrations of life.

I then proceeded to tell her of my test…and how grandly I failed it. Within 2 minutes, the next 36 hours (and really the rest of my life) were set. It went something like this:

ME: …then it said I needed to find something fun. Something spontaneous.
HER: RCPM is playing tonight in Des Moines! LETS GO!
ME: You’re nuts.
HER: (eyes sparkling, smile gleaming, toes bouncing)
ME: What about the kids, catching up on work, and who would want to go with us?
HER: James and Lisa! I know she’ll call within 10 minutes saying that they’re going!
(seconds later)
HER: “Hello? Lisa! …Awesome! …working on him now. See you in 30 minutes”
ME: Ummm…
HER: “Hello? Mom, we need a favor…yes…20 minutes. Thank you!”
HER: All set. Lets Rock.
ME: But…
HER: COME ON!

30 minutes later we were fleeing our mundane home towards a temporary Sonoran oasis in Des Moines to see RCPM. During the trip we got a crash course in the history of RCPM, The Refreshments, someone named Buddy, and listened to as many songs as possible.

3.5 hours later RCPM took the stage.

The quick snare roll led into the infectious guitar riff that offered us a special kind of contraband. We were off on a journey led by an experienced troubadour through the adventures that life had in store for us if we just opened ourselves to the opportunities.

The Telecaster started the very next song with a perfect rhythmic riff offering us to go down together while the Les Paul blasted licks that sounded how red wine tastes..we liked that a lot.

By the end of the night, when the songs were mere echoes in our heads, the limes had been bitten, and our back-stage conversations with the band were over, my life-lens had been re-focused. I was given a musical medicine that could mend my attitude when it faltered.

I discovered it wasn’t a mundane home I was fleeing after all. It was a mundane attitude on life. I had everything one could hope for, except the ability to recognize it. The vibrations I heard that night brought me closer to God, my wife, music, and my kids. I began to remember what it felt like to compose a song. How a 2 line lyric backed by the right chords can melt a heart, unify a crowd, and make a soul come alive.

I remembered what it was like to have fun.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I realize now that while it’s hard work to live life with a passion, and that it takes energy to squeeze the most out of this world, the results are well worth it:

• A far happier attitude
• A marriage closer and lovelier than I could imagine
• A domestic adventure worth cherishing (con quatro niños!)
• An expectation that something great is about to happen every day

And here’s the best part: we don’t go to RCPM shows to escape our lives…instead we have infused this life-loving RCPM attitude into our daily living. Going to an RCPM show is our way to add fuel to our peace-and-love-through-rock-and-roll fire that burns in our hearts.

Thank you Roger, Jim, P.H., Nick, Steve for providing the contraband.

Thank you wife for sailing on this beautiful adventure by my side.

Thank you God for showing me how rich and textured a life can be.

Salud. Here’s to life!

My 2010 IBM World Tour – Highlights

While the last post focused my year long “Customer Adoption” tour By The Numbers, this post highlights my favorite memories from my favorite cities.

Enjoy…

~~~ Highlights ~~~

4/15 Washington DC
Loved taking an intense walkabout across the mall, Smithsonian, US Capital, Library of Congress,  Supreme Court, and metro. Ended up creating a movie with a surprising list of who's-who that really likes our product!

6/27-6/29 New York
I have two standing destinations when I visit NYC: Rudy’s Guitar Shop, which sells my dream guitar: Paul Reed Smith Tonare Grand acoustic guitar

…and The Iridium…where the best music is performed live in an intimate location with available front row tables: Read Detailed Memories of this night or just view the summary photo:

7/14-7/17 San Mateo
I got to visit the Golden Gate Bridge, Muir Woods and Muir Beach, and my childhood home. Amazing places.

8/12-8/22 Sydney
Stayed at the Intercontinental Sydney. Just off the harbor at Circular Quay. Blue Mountains, Manly and Bondi beaches, trains, harbors, and the nice people. Oh, and ‘Flat White’ coffee. “Have here or take-away?”

9/10-9/14 London/Warwick
The castles, history, fish and chips, hearing Big Ben strike 12, Warwick castle, and free golf at the Ardencote Manor. This place was on IBM’s approved list, and was a private country club. Stunning!

9/15-9/17 Budapest
I absolutely loved Budapest. Buda on one side of the Danube river, Pest on the other. Intercontinental Hotel was amazing and I got to play some guitar!

the guided tour through Budapest inspired me to show everyone what makes my life sparkle…

9/18-9/24 Johannesburg
Went on a real-life safari. Amazing. Oh, and that fence? That’s OUR cage to keep us safe during one of our breaks from the animals on the outside.

9/30-10/05 Singapore
Little India had authentic street-side curry. Wonderful tasting, and it didn’t kill us! Little China showed us an authentic fish market:

10/6-10/10 Bangkok
Messy, chaotic, lots of bugs, did I say chaotic? And HOT! We had to wear pants on our tourist day. No, as opposed to shorts, smart-aleck, in order to see the temples. Great scenery but I’m fine not going back.

11/09-11/11 Dallas
One word: Steak. Amazing steak. Oh, and we crashed an HP conference…a good topic for another blog :-)

12/05-12/09 Las Vegas
I Hate Vegas. There. I said it. Why? Because even when I try to capture something nice, like this Eiffel tower, Ms. “Hey-Look-At-My-Nakedness-On-This-90-Foot-Billboard” gets in my way.

The Work
I know what you’re thinking…and you’d be wrong :-)   I actually DID work while on this world tour. I present these photos as evidence.

Those that travel like this can also confirm…while an amazing adventure teaching and communicating our product’s value, my ‘day’ job was still awaiting me when I got back to the hotel.

This resulted in a constant struggle between responsive emails or searching out a new adventure…

…I guess you know which won.

My 2010 IBM World Tour – By The Numbers

This year I focused on “Customer Adoption” of our product at IBM. Besides the collateral I created while working in Rochester (Facebook page, YouTube movies), I traveled.

A lot.

To illustrate, here is a pin-map of the locations I visited. Want more? Visit my “World Tour Photo Album”

Here’s another way to look at it: By the numbers.

Days Traveled:   65
Tough on the family and personally, but not one regret – read why

Miles Flown:   77,280
Yes, I got to keep the frequent flyer miles and am now treated like all humans should but few are at Delta :-)

Bags Packed:  1
Yep, one small carry-on plus backpack that carried my laptop and other electronics. I stuffed 2 shirts, 2 show pants, lots of under garments, and toiletries. All of them rolled to maximize space and lasted up to two weeks. Oh, and one awesome pair of shoes I could wear as dress, casual, even with shorts.

Times I needed to do laundry:   1
But not for poor packing. In Bangkok the cab we took was filled with bugs. I had a choice: Burn the clothes and buy new ones (potentially filled with more bugs) or dry-clean the whole mess. I chose dry-clean. Thank you Finance Dudes for approving the laundry expense!

Gallons of Jet Fuel Used: 386,400
I know. I didn’t fly alone on the 757’s. Although I did have a great time in coach on all those international flights!

Hours of longest single flight: 15
This was to Sydney. Tip: take 2 Benadryl. I slept 7 hours. ‘course that left 8 more hours to eat and watch 4 movies

Hours of longest travel day: 31
9am Thursday – 4:00pm Friday (all CT) from Johannesburg South Africa to home (through London Heathrow). Crazy thing: 5 days later I flew from home to Singapore…another 23 hour travel day.

Continents Visited:  5
North America, Australia, Europe, Africa, Asia. Now to figure out how to get to South America. Or, I could honor my internationally educated peers who only recognize “America” as one continent, not two and I will only have one very hard-to-reach continent left to get to: Antarctica

Countries Visited:   8
USA, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, Hungary, South Africa, Singapore, Thailand

Cities Visited:   16
Ottawa, Calgary , Palisades, Washington DC, Toronto, New York, San Mateo, Sydney, London, Warwick, Budapest, Johannesburg, Singapore,  Bangkok, Dallas, Las Vegas

Oceans and Rivers Touched: 7
Pacific Ocean (San Mateo), Atlantic Ocean (New York), South China Sea (Singapore), Coral Sea (Sydney), Thames River (London), Danube River (Budapest), Chao Phraya River (Bangkok)

Hours Taught:   150
This does not count the 49 hours of web conference education I gave this year to customers through the Internet.

IBM $$$ spent:   $25,993.28
Not bad for the potential sales revenue! Although, this only includes my travel expenses, not the catering costs. Catered food costs a lot!

Customers Educated:    730
Some of the best customers in the world.

Meals Eaten:   195 
One awesome perk I cannot deny. I tasted many, many new things and all were yummy! Of course many on-the-go breakfasts (favorite was flat-white coffee and egg sandwich in Sydney). Many lunches were just-OK catering. But the dinners. Ah the dinners. Sushi, seafood, steaks, curry, Thai, kangaroo, alligator, all you can imagine…

 …and let’s not forget the local brews…

Days sick from local food and drink:   0
Someone was watching out for me.

Kids I grew to love even more:   4
It seemed that when I was on the other side of the world we could communicate more often…thank you Skype

 

Amazing Wife who ran the castle:   1
I don’t know how to repay her, but all of my free tickets are going towards her adventures. (like our recent trip to Phoenix for a tequila festival and RCPM show)

 

As I look back, I can’t believe where I’ve been. It’s been quite a year. I am truly blessed with this job (thank you IBM), these opportunities, my travel companions, my family. The world has become much smaller to me. God gave me the urge to travel the world when I was young, and has provided the means as well.

Amazing.

I think I’m going to take a long nap now.

2010-12-04: The New Standards

12-04-2010: The New Standards
Where: The Fitzgerald Theater, St. Paul MN
Went with: Wife, James, Lisa
Times: 2nd

I should title this, “I Want You To Want Me” because after hearing it the way The New Standards performs this song, its been in the forefront of my mind ever since.

Watch and listen:

The big surprise is how it’s forcing me to reflect on friendships…and my lack of them. But more on that later.

The show, our 2nd time seeing them, was even better this time. We were in the 2nd balcony but I love these seats because I could soak in all the action, colors, and musicians all at once.

We even got to hear my favorite Suburbs song “Rattle My Bones” in a very cool style!

I went with the wife as well as our friends James and Lisa. Our evening started with an amazing dinner at Fuji-Ya complete with sushi, saki, weird mushrooms, and great conversation. The show was mesmerizing with special guests, and wonderful music.

Reflections on “I Want You to Want Me”:
I’m starting to wonder if I’ve been shouting out these lyrics myself. Not for vanity (the motivation most people think is behind this song), but for validation…

…and protection

…and fear

Here’s what the song says…
I want you to want me
I need you to need me
I’d love you to love me
I’m begging you to beg me

Here’s what I hear:

I want you to want me, friend, but I’ll only respond 10% of the time. 90% of the time I’m quite happy alone or with my family. It’s that last 10% that hurts my heart. Will you wait around for me? I didn’t think so.

I need you to need me, church, so I can focus on ‘getting things done’ like being on stage, setup, teardown, tasks in general. That way I won’t have time to feel awkward and hear the deafening silence as I stand drinking my coffee and eating my sliced fruit waiting for someone to want to walk up and talk with me. Here’s my secret: It’s not dedication that makes me tune my guitar twice per morning…it’s to fill the time gap…to protect me from standing alone in the middle of a crowd with no one to talk to…and from fear that someone might actually want to walk up to me and talk.

I’d love you to love me as a close friend, but that scares the crap out of me. I am very uncomfortable making friendships…and keeping friendships alive (3 years on average…then something happens: moving away, drifting apart, …). If I could just magically make you love me as a close friend, that’d be great (impossible, I know).

I’m begging you to beg me to accomplish some task that you think only I can do. I may be too busy for it, but then you’ll say those five words I love to hear, “We need to clone you”. No emotional investment required, but still feel validated as a contributing member of the relationship…at a safe distance.

So…quite a night. Not a fun, happy trip to Margaritaville, but a memorable experience none the less. Maybe I’ll learn a thing or two.

Who am I kidding.

I think my guitar needs tuning.

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Read other robot concert thoughts

Song Insight: “Be to Me”

Composer: Greg Hintermeister, ©2000
Arranged: Greg Hintermeister
Performed by: Greg Hintermeister
Recorded: 2010 in Hint of Light Studios
Emotions: Detached, longing, pleading

Listen:
Other song insights

Background: 
Usually I write songs based on personal stories or strong emotions that inspire the lyric or music.

Not this time. This song, “Be to Me” is entirely fictitious.

I wrote it to accompany a drama we did at crossWinds church back in April 2000 (my stars…how time flies). The week was “Family Values – Everyone Counts”. The drama focused on a young man in a busy family who isn’t getting his dad’s attention. Over time we see the son being ignored and feeling more invisible. He looks detached and ‘over it’, but inside we learn he is really yearning for a closer relationship.

To fully engage the audience, we needed a song that fit perfectly to express more of the emotion the character was feeling. The actor stayed on stage at the end of the drama while the song unfolded.

This was a great chance for me to get into the mind of the character. I love doing that. It’s like writing the music for a mini-musical. I read the script several times to get the feel of the character’s feelings, then extrapolated as to what he would sing about after the scene ended. The chords and arrangement were critical in moving from this detached acceptance at the beginning to eventually having the character open up and yearn to be noticed.

I had a great time with the lyric writing, too. Since the audience knew the context from the drama, I was free to be a little more poetic. Notice the internal rhyming in line 3 of the verses. Thank you Stephen Sondheim.

Enjoy.

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Technical Specifics:

Recording Unit: Cakewalk MIDI software, Soundscape DAW
Drums: Roland XV-5080
Electric Guitar: Paul Reed Smith Hollowbody II (rhythm and solo)
Guitar Amp: Fender Hot Rod Deluxe
Guitar Mics: close: Shure SM57;  3ft back: CAD E100
Acoustic Guitar: Ovation 1712 Custom Balladeer (CAD E100)
Bass: Fiama Hollowbody (recorded directly into the board)

Recording Specifics: 
I had a surprisingly rough time mixing this song down. My goal was to have strong, raw instruments that expressed the character’s raw emotions. After mixing and mastering, I noticed some anomalies in the chorus. After soloing the tracks, I discovered a few problems:

• The drums bled into the guitar track
• The drums in the chorus contained open high-hats that were too loud and harsh
• The bass had some clipping in strong parts

What’s really frustrating is that I know better. I think I was so excited to get the song ‘out’ that I rushed through some setup. I usually record guitar direct through my Line 6 POD pro, but wanted a real authentic sound with this song. I ended up mic’ing the Hot Rod Deluxe amp, and I think it sounds great, but that caused the drum bleedover. Why? Because I wasn’t using headphones to monitor the drums…I was just playing them through the speakers. Idiot. I just wasn’t thinking. Normally tracks bleeding through are not a big issue, but in this case, it made those loud open high-hats really shrill sounding…and limited any changes I wanted in the drums as the rough drum track was printed in the guitar track.

All in all, though, I’m still quite happy with the song.

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Lyrics ©2000 Greg Hintermeister 
Verse 1:
I never really wanted to be invisible 
it just sort of happened over time 
Began without a word…a small desire to be heard 
To you everything was fine

Verse 2: 
I guess you never noticed I’m amazing 
at never being noticed by you 
It’s just another skill I never wanted to fulfill 
Am I ever on your mind?

Chorus: 
I don’t want to be alone…talk to me tonight
any little thing will do…just look into my eyes
so you can see – it’s me…and I’m still here
waiting for you
To be real to me…that’s all I ever ask
is to be real to me

Verse 3: 
You seem to be distracted by the little things
I wish you were distracted by me
Maybe if I changed…the way I look or said your name
you’d spend some time with me

Chorus: 
I don’t want to be alone…talk to me tonight
any little thing will do…just look into my eyes
so you can see – it’s me…and I’m still here
waiting for you

Solo: 
I don’t want to be alone…talk to me tonight
any little thing will do…just look into my eyes
Will you look at me – and see…that I’m still here
waiting for you
To be real to me…that’s all I ever wanted
to be real to me

God, I LOVE This Guitar!

…and I wonder, did You plan this all along?

Then God said, “Let there be Luthier-quality tone-wood”. And God saw that it was good…saw that it was better than good. God saw that it rocked! Thus ended the third day.
Genesis 1:11-12 (GRH Translation)

I know Day 3 was a big day for you, but among creating all the “Seed-bearing plants” and “Fruit-bearing trees”, did you put a little extra love into East Coast maple, Indian Rosewood, and Mahogany… knowing that in 1999 these woods you created would be formed into my Paul Reed Smith Hollow-body II Black Sunburst 10-top?

Did you end Day 3 thinking, “I can’t wait to see Greg’s reaction”?

When you taught the Eagle to fly on day 5, did your eye twinkle knowing their flight would be honored on the rosewood neck using abalone inlays from the sea shells you made on the same day?

Were you giddy knowing that when I turned 30, and decided to buy my ‘dream guitar’, that you had already planted, cultivated, and grew the trees that would be used?

Did you guide the invention of glossy finish, 000 grit sandpaper, and black-sunburst stain procedures knowing it would only enhance the guitar’s flamed-maple top?

Do you wink when the wood reflects my smile, knowing it also reflects yours?

I wonder…did you gather the angels around your throne to watch (and sing) at the exact moment I first plugged my guitar into a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, turned the gain to 3, and strummed an E chord?

…and did you audibly whisper to me, “Yeah, I knew you’d like it”, or did I just imagine it?

How about when I play? I know you are ruler of the universe and all, but do you smile when I nail that solo I’ve been working on…even if it is during a church service? Or, maybe, especially when it is during a church service?

When the band is tight, anticipating each others phrasing, filling the stage with sonic goodness, and I’m playing more from instinct than paper (and playing far better than I should be), is that you surrounding me? Is that my heart laughing with you?

Do you bless Jim Marshall when I play dropped-D through my Marshall Gov’nor Plus pedal because it’s the exact hard-rock tone a troubled soul in the audience needs to hear so you can soften his hardened heart?

How about on that cold winter morning when my PRS fell and was cosmetically damaged. Did you shed a tear with me, even though you knew I had to learn that a guitar shouldn’t replace You as the focus of my music?

I wonder…

Do you use my passion for this guitar as your way to help me understand how much you really do love me?