The Paper Keyboard

Ah, to be 18 again. Fresh out of high school, rocking flannel like it was your full-time job, and thinking you were the backbone of the next big thing in rock and blues. My band? Red Rock. Until one day, the unthinkable happened—my drummer dreams came crashing down with a single, detached phone call: “You’re not in the band anymore.” Ouch. Rejection, angst, and the unmistakable sting of an unwashed flannel—welcome to my late ‘70s coming-of-age story. From losing my first band, to joining the most bizarre group of misfits you can imagine (spoiler: it involved a guy using a notebook paper keyboard and a frontman growling Neil Diamond), this episode has it all. Lessons learned? Oh, plenty. Chief among them: always play with musicians better than you... and never trust a keyboardist without an actual keyboard. Buckle up—it’s the ‘70s!  Let’s roll.