Rock Legend (part five)

By 1988 the band was coming down from a popularity high, and it seems like we were becoming last weeks favorite flavor and becoming stale, and when that happens you start to scratch and claw to return to the past glory.. The buttons were no longer important to anyone, the demo tape (album if you will) was no longer selling and was dropped in price or given away as a promotional item.. Did the people want something new?? a new tape??  New music?? New direction?? It was anyone's guess.. In August we began working on songs for a gig booked the first weekend of October.. They didn't realize it at the time but that was Oktoberfest weekend and has been since it's inception..  Sometime after Labor Day they figured out their mistake and tried to get out of the gig, BUT.. After the debacle at the other bar in Kimball Ernie insisted on legal binding contracts from that point forward and that meant we had to play this gig.. It was a true test of their ability to be professional and my feeling was that had they begged out of that gig it might have been the end for us because we didn't play that regularly anyway and I was just on the very verge of leaving the band. The practice sessions were way too many and the gigs just weren't enough.. I wasn't living off what we made, none of us were and I didn't think we would.. I didn't have an end reason, a reason to leave wasn't in my mind.. The old three strikes and your out were hit, and so was the next two or three batters.. But I wanted to stay in the band at pretty much any cost.. We played that Kimball gig and the only memory I really have was I beat my leg to a bloody pulp... Well not literally but close.. The snare drum was set at a height where my left hand would just hit my thigh.. Just hit it, not hard.. But over the four hour show we played around three and a half hours which is by far more than any other band did.. This was our reputation, we played long.. LONG sets.. by this time we were playing some thirty plus song sets.. I loved it... I'd rather play than have to mingle with the people during breaks.. After the Saturday gig we packed up and went home, unloaded the gear and I went home.. From that night until the hastily thrown together practice in December we wouldn't get it together until early April..

The end is near:  Little did I know they would agree to my wanting to play a freebie gig for my little brothers graduation.. I thought it was just deserving for playing a couple gigs for their friends going into the service.. Hey one of them was Chris.. The other was his brother who joined the service first and then dared Chris to join, it'll be a hoot..  So they agreed to play it and all was going to be fine and dandy.. Well not quite.. The practice sessions were not the best.. By this time the band was done as far as having any true fans. Ernie was recording at his house with a four track demo recorder but he was doing finished recordings.. And in fact had what he was calling a new finished tape for fan consumption.. Only trouble was we weren't playing to have anyone hear the music.. That and I wasn't the drummer on the tape so I wasn't interested in it at all.. The writing seemed to be on the wall as far as me being in the band...  There were other times when I thought the end was near but I chose to ignore those feelings and thought I was just over reacting.  The graduation party was going to be the restart for the band, a sort of kickstart.. The guys would admit to how much they missed gigging and want to get it going again.. Well that wasn't the case as the practice sessions were becoming a sort of grind and knowing the gig we were preparing for probably didn't help.. It was for me, for my little brother's graduation class party.. So not really an important gig at all.. My feeling was that I was hoping this would make them want to gig again.. I felt that even as a hobby we should have been able to play two gigs a month.. But as the practice sessions dragged on I felt like it was becoming drudgery to get it together.. I was getting tired of that feeling by them, and was a constant feeling like that.. By the time the gig rolled around I was about ready for the end.. But I still held out hope that the gig itself would recharge the want to play again..  We played the show, although an abbreviated show, the set lists were shorter.. By the second break in the show Ernie talked to me about the tempo that the songs were speeding up and slowing down and the number of mistakes were horrible.. I felt like had we been playing gigs regularly that we would not have that problem.. He tore into me and this coupled with the previous practice issues and a few other things that I was tired of spelled the end.. I felt like this is the end.. I couldn't compete with an electronic digital drum machine, I wasn't perfect and never claimed to be.. But he also wanted the old songs that he re-recorded to be done the new way.. Sadly when you play the songs as much as we did they become second nature to play them that way, I could literally play them in my sleep and at some of the gigs I swore I did..

The end happened not with a bang but with a well placed rumor.  Well placed in that I told anyone at the after party that I was gone.. This was my last gig as the drummer with Destiny.. It would be a few weeks before I got the call about was this true.. I denied it was true but it actually was.. I would never play with them again.  Sadly had they called with the idea of playing gigs plural, I would have said yes, but in February of the next year i got a call to play a gig at the fairgrounds the fallowing August.. I wasn't wanting a single gig, so I told them I would think about it and get back to them.. They are still waiting for my call to this day.. The end happened.. And had they said we're gonna start again that's all it would have taken.. (I'm not sure what was said in that call, I think I just said no then, It's not like me to keep anyone hanging like that and it would have given them enough chance to get someone else to play the drums for a few songs.. That never happened for that gig, because I went hoping to see the new Destiny with a different drummer, but they weren't there..)

I wouldn't see a poster of them playing anywhere although in an article in the paper a few years later Ernie would mention that he had been touring with his backing band Destiny.. I would have loved to tour but it just wasn't looking like anything was going to happen.. Not with me in there anyway..


The 90's weren't good to my taste in music.. In fact from 1990 through now my taste in music is still the same but I find it increasingly hard to find the qualifications to get anything out there.. Truth is that day in the garage when Ernie was practicing Maniac set me into listening to the radio and recording songs I liked and songs I thought we could possibly do.. I opened my ears to anything from that point on.  But after I left the band I stopped listening to the radio as closely.. I was thinking that I don't think Destiny would have had much success in the nineties.. Having to conform to grunge wasn't likely to happen.. I wasn't a grunge fan, nor a rap/hip-hop fan either.. I would continue to play the drums and tried out for a band or two but in the end after the last tryout I thought I would rather just go back to Destiny it was the perfect band.. However there were so many issues there that I just decided to hang it up.. I still held up hope to join another band but it had to be on my terms more or less..  And I was willing to do just about anything to do so.. But gradually I started to give up hope.  Destiny was supposedly touring during this time period although I found that hard to believe since everyone I talked to hadn't heard of anything like that happening.. I thought there would be backlash from my quitting from those who were fans but there was never anything said to me about why I quit or anything..   I would have told them the reason why I quit was nothing.. We weren't doing anything, so why should I remain in the band.. I think Ernie got tired of the band.. When I was at the house where we practiced I had seen the new logo and the name change to Ernie Ward  & Destiny.. I thought if i am a backup musician I should ask to get paid for the rehearsal time.. That name would be changed after I left..

During the final year (88) there was definitely a feeling of changes.. I played my drumset and the added electric pads and then the pads only..  From that October gig until the very final gig was a nice break.. I was wanting the band to get together but didn't know how to get that done and for that matter I wasn't sure I wanted it to get back together.. It's a sad thing to think and even harder to write. I wanted the band to work but was feeling more and more out of place.. I remember being at practices where very little was getting done and thinking why am I here??  As I was saying leaving would take a big event, maybe a threat by one of the members towards my safety or them becoming very reckless in some way..   I didn't exactly know how it would go down and I wasn't thinking that way.. When we got together for the final gig with me as drummer I wasn't thinking this is it.. But after leaving I do remember thinking that I had those feelings.. If that gig didn't stir them to want to gig again then it might very well be over.. I didn't want to push things.. After that graduation gig I just thought I'd let them figure it out, no pushing from me.. I did go out to the building and get the drum stage and anything that was mine out of there.. We would move the band equipment out of there some three days after the gig..

I didn't want to feel like I was the one who would force the band to play, to stick together.. I wanted it but wasn't wanting it.. If we would have stayed together who knows what might have happened.. I felt like the band should be a band and not a solo group thing..  By the time I left there were enough things that happened that I just thought enough was enough.. They could go it without me.. It took a lot for me to decide I was ready to leave..  But from the final gig in '88 until the final gig, I had that much time to think about things, and how everything was through the entirety of the band being together.. The good times and the not so good times..

Rock Legend (part four)

And then we were DESTINY: How did we go about the name change?? By the time we were in our new rehearsal location we were back to being the four member band, played our very first ever prom in Ogallala and were getting a good following.. I really didn't want to rock the boat with a name change but we were changing, evolving in our sound and visually as well.. The heavy rock sound we we had started with was being changed gradually to a top 40 type of rock.. So at one point they decided a name change was in order.. It was more than likely already known what the name was going to be but for a little while they let everyone put in their two cents worth and I thought about DESTROYER (from the album of the same name by KISS).. That was poo pooed right off and there might have been a second idea put in by me but I really wasn't into naming the band and thought we should stay with Rizzen for the fact that it would take a while to build up the fan base we had built.. Then I saw the inspiration for the name they were leaning towards, the album Destiny by the Jacksons.. I wasn't a fan of the Jacksons then or ever.. They had a few songs but not many I cared for.. Destiny would be the name so.. If you don't like it, THERE'S THE DOOR..

Well he never said that and really we were established by this time (early '86 I think) and it was alright, i just hopped we wouldn't have to rename the band again anytime soon.. That being said I soon found other groups named Destiny,  an all female group in Omaha had the name.. I told them of this hoping the name would be changed with no chance.. To me the name was a wussie departure from a harder feeling of Rizzen.. But also the Rizzen name had us develop a reputation.. Anytime we played at certain bars our "fan base" would go and tear the shit out of the place.  A name change didn't change that, the fan base stayed constant until 85-86 when we would have the greatest surge we would ever have. Popularity is a fickle bitch though..  And that would be none more evident when in that popularity we went into the studio to cut a few songs..


The studio experience:  For quite a while at one point Ernie was wanting us to go into the studio to record  a few songs and finally we did just that... A guy owned recording equipment and we went to his basement studio.. I had never worked exclusively with a click track and we didn't have  a backing tape or demo to work from so Ern and Joe played the song for me to lay down the drum tracks of the song.. It took two tries for one song and one for the other for me to get the drums done.. I think the guy working the tape deck was figuring on several hours just for the drums only.. After we got out of the studio the next morning (around three, time flies when you're having fun).. It really was an interesting time that day and then we would have one more session some time  later but that wasn't as good although on my part I nailed it again in one take.. The rest of the time was truly wasted because they were in a party in the studio mood.. I left before the session was done knowing nothing good was going to come of it.. That second session started the souring of the band to me.. There were other issues.. We practiced in the garage on the hill under the then main water tower for the city.. Ernie would call this the cave and we recorded a rough demo there, putting the songs from the first studio visit on there and then selling it to "fans" at our shows and for a while that was a great tape and it seems like everyone had a copy.. To me it was good but it was never used to get us booked, or if it was it was very rarely used that way.. The second studio effort was completely a waste of time as the results were never put on a demo tape.. I was right about that one..



The manager at the time was whoever Ernie could manipulate the easiest.. His sister would "manage" for some time, then a guy named Jeff.. Actually I think Jeff was off and on through the entirety of the band as a manager.. Actually being the manager is almost low man on the totem pole with roadie being bottom.. We had roadies but not the tech type, they were mostly the type that did the grunt work, unloading the truck and stuff.. They got the payment of getting in free when it was a gate purse thing.. That was fine with them I guess.. After the first few gigs we stopped arriving in multiple cars with our gear and used u-haul trailers and trucks to get our gear there.. By the end of that first year we played R.D.'s in Sedgwick Colorado.. That was the mecca of gigs, the ultimate bar for bands.. Back then they had the 18 drinking age bars and 21.. 18 got three two beer (koolaid by comparison) and the 21 bars got six four.. The hard stuff, and so conversely the 32 bars had more of a younger crowd.. That was R.D.'s bar and they stretched that rule a little bit with a feeling that if you could lift the mug off the counter, you were old enough to drink there.. I didn't drink beer so I didn't drink there, and after a certain gig would never drink again.. That gig was the once and only time we played in my hometown..  There were only a handful of gigs that really stood out. The first gig mentioned earlier with that dastardly cramp.. The first crowd no show at the tech school. Then there was the time we played the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.. That was at R.D.'s and there was a little feeling by me that we  would have a very small crowd.. The opposite happened, we had the place packed to the rafters as they say, and sold out of beer by ten.. We just started an hour before that, what gives??  That's how big and apparently thirsty they were..  The gig at Oshkosh (b'gosh) where we played in a quanset and had to move a pile of grain before we set up.. A graduation gig it was on a cloudy and then very wet rainy evening.. The gigs at the st. pats community center, a good number of gigs there.. The show at Padroni Colorado on a Monday night in early December where the roads were covered in ice and the drive home was interesting because we got slowed by what is called Peetz hill covered in ice and me noticing that we weren't doing the 60 miles an hour the speedometer was saying.. Did something that freaked them out that night.. I jumped out, asked them if they needed a push.. Being in a band you do weird shit like that..  The final gig was my brothers graduation party.. In between were a great number of faceless gigs that didn't register as very big to me, but were important none the less because they were gigs.. I loved being in the band when we played.  It meant something.. There was a little fame..

Sadly our gig area was contained to a fifty mile radious of Sidney, with the furthest we would play is Sterling, Hollyoke, Ogallala and Dalton... Kimball to the extreme west at the B.Z. tavern..

To get from the Rizzen era to the Destiny era was pretty much this way.. When Blue Earth moved to Lincoln they changed their name several times because of management wanting to sell them to halls and trying to get record deals.  They played around the area mostly for the gate, so they played in bigger halls than just bars.. Their stage was bigger and so they staged things differently.. They then ended up moving to Dallas Texas..  So after Ernie talked to their lead vocalist one night he got the idea of a name change from that conversation.. The time frame of this I'm not sure of but I am pretty sure the members were still the original core of Darren, Joe, Ernie and myself.. Darren would last only a short time more, as I said I didn't pal around with the guys very often not for any other reason than I didn't feel like I fit in completely.. I was like the off brand tire on the car..

I did drink during one show.. Of all the times to drink anything it was the one gig we played in my hometown.. I didn't mean to get that drunk, and I was drinking those wine coolers.. Alcohol deadens the senses and in that case it really did.. After that night I swore to never drink during a gig ever again.. The same couldn't be said for the other guys but I felt like I had to be sober or the entire of the band would go in the shitter rhythm wise..

The time we met another band that wanted to gig with us.. We set up to play a gig in town, our home turf and then maybe set to play at their home turf Ogallala some time later.. Their name was Desire and they were a four member band that played about the same music we did a pop rock style.. They set up in one corner of the armory and us in the other.. It was a Saturday and we were ready to play, but not  a battle of the bands thing but rather a couple bands getting together to see what they were like and them us.. After that gig they folded and sold some of their equipment to us..  There would be no second gig with them.. 

When I think of the amount of practice time we did for gigs it was just staggering, although I bought into the idea that he wanted us to be near perfect.. Perfection is unattainable especially when anyone in the band is doing any mind altering chemicals of any kind.. We practiced.. When I got to the practice sites I would check my drums and play as Ernie tuned the guitar and Joe's bass.. We would jam and through these jam sessions a great number of song ideas would get hatched out and some of our better songs would be written.. When the demo was put together my name was omitted from the "written by" credits but their cousin who can't write a lick to save his life was included.. Some of the songs were written with Darren there but he wasn't included either..  I don't know if they thought I would want a royalty at all, but I didn't.. I would have liked to just had the acknowledgement is all ..

We played at a bar in Kimball and got stiffed on the payment owed to us.. This was a real downer and was the last time we would play without a contract being presigned before a gig.. We get to the bar and Ernie had the contract in hand and got the person in charge to sign just before we went on.. After that debacle he would get the contract signed before we arrived.. That meant a month before gigs.. We did get paid for this gig but it took nearly a year to do so.. We never played there again although he was contacted to play there sometime later..

The day I went to practice and Ernie was learning Maniac by Micheal Sembelo was a turning point in the way I viewed the band.. I walked by him and kind of shook my head and he said what and I said we aren't learning that crappy song are we. He let me know right there in no uncertain terms that we were learning this song and the reason was we had to be more diversified with our music.. Ok, I guess sure why not.. We were changing and evolving musically and it was better (?) top 40 ish, while holding on to some of the old heavy rock for requests ...

We got a new lead vocalist at one point after the name change.. I'm not sure what the deal was that he agreed to a new vocalist but.. His name was Ricky J.  on stage and i'm not sure what his real name was.. He joined and sang maybe three to five songs and would be in the band through the final (paying) gig in Kimball.. When I think now of that time I think the reason he went with a new vocalist was to practice more, and more often..   

Rock Legend (part three)

HEY WE GOT A GIG BOOKED.. Sometime in late August we got booked into playing the legion hall in Sidney.. For the ripe price of the gate we would get paid a bit for this gig after expenses of course.. But before the gig things would get dicey as Joe and a few others had gone to Ogallala to the music store and on the way back got into  a pretty bad wreck on the interstate.. Back in the early going of the band some of the members were looking into some sort of voo-doo like devil worship type of shit.. I never got into that and didn't hang with them in these sessions..  Then in September (Labor Day to be exact) I started getting a tingle in my throat.. That tingle would develop into a full blown cold then into broncitis just for fun.. By the time we played the gig I felt horrible but there was no way I was going to cancel out on this gig.. NFW..  But.. The gig itself was a ... interesting deal.. I was just thinking about this earlier today.. The way the gig was put together almost had that feeling of well we'll play this gig and then the guys will see we need to work harder on the songs.. Thing is we came together for this gig, and felt like a band.. My memories of that gig were like this.. We got there by five in the evening and got set up, sound checked and then were ready to go on by 8 or there abouts.. The very first gig we played around ten songs per set (nothing near what we would do two years later when we would play thirty songs per set) and we had to repeat nearly the whole of set one to fill the night.. My worst memory was when my right calf cramped ..  Man it would not let up.. I had cramps before but it was just like.. LET UP ALREADY!!.. That was the worst and the last gig I would play without stretching first.. I had never stretched before playing the drums, but from this point on I would.. It added to my anxiety towards playing any gigs.. And after that episode I had that in the back of my mind.. Could I play a full gig ever without cramping up..  During the gig Ernie had borrowed some monitor speakers and plugged them into his P.A. system.. However great it was to hear those, and the vocals it was short lived as the head unit driving the speakers broke down.. For all of nearly two songs I thought this is what we sound like.. And then would never hear the monitors again while in the band.. That was fine, I learned how to listen to the other members amps.. But I would never hear the vocals (clearly) again while in this band..

After that gig there was a short lull in the action in that time there was no contact with them and I was getting over that bout of broncitis.. Great, now I feel better what about the band.. We got it together finally for a rehearsal at the garage and I noticed something.. My drums were set up.. And they were completely set up with everything pretty much where they belong.. The instant thought went through my head, they had someone else play my drums.. Were they trying to replace me already?? WTF


That feeling of wondering if I was about to be replaced stayed with me through the next year or so, but it also changed the way I left my drums at the different practice sites.. I would never again leave my bass drum peddle or my sticks there.. Although I learned from my early days of being a drummer that my little brother would use anything that resembled a stick to tap my drums with, the bass peddle is hard to replicate without spending some serious money on..  That stopped them from playing my drums with my equipment, and put my mind to rest about that at least for a while..




In the meantime we went in for the first of several photo sessions by various  photo studios for publicity shots, mostly for the posters advertising us playing at whatever location.. These seemed like a waste of time to me but it did do something most bands at that time weren't doing, a picture poster advert.. In fact they don't do that now either..  We would play out at the college in October or early November..  Playing on a stage auditorium setting for the first time.. The gig was rescheduled because of weather and should have been cancelled because no one showed up.. Bummer.. The next few months would see the band change with Frank leaving after having a rediscovery in the religious area.  (He found God.. good for him, he's in prison right now serving a term for murdering someone.. religion, don't get me started)..  That meant the core of the band was set and was the way it would be for the remainder of us being together.. We had several lead vocalists come and go none the more greater than the girl that would join that first winter..

Her name was Joelle and she could sing.. Vocals were her strong point and she joined before Christmas in '85 (I think, or it was the next year but it just seems like she was on board early).. Losing Frank was a very slight blow to the band as he was just learning to play the guitar before I joined the band.. He had the hair ala Roger Daltry  circa Tommy..  He was kinda quiet but soon was voicing his opinion about everything.. I don't think he was kicked out, his girlfriend was able to hasten his leaving by being a big influence on him both with religion and then getting him to be in the family way..  He more or less had to quit to get a job to pay for that bit of play.. Joelle was a really good vocalist but over powered the PA system.. There was no complaint from me about her vocals because I could hear her quite well, she was that loud.. She was also quite easy on the eyes.. She would be in the band for maybe three gigs but then she would be kicked out because we just couldn't have a really good vocalist in the band.. (She was still in high school, a senior I think)..  Others who would give singing a try was Chris who was just pure ass WILD..  I loved that guy for his fuck you attitude..  He was really never a member of the band but did write a song and sang it several times while we were still Rizzen.. We played a good number of gigs with the Rizzen name but shortly that name would have to be sacrificed for the greater good..

Rock Legend (part two)

The drumset was (is) a Pearl set, blue crystal colour and while it wasn't my favorite colour I made due, it was better to have any drumset than not.. By the time I got in the band I figured the drumset I played was my trademark of sorts.. I would feel pressured to add more drums and the next year I bought another kit just like it and add every drum but the bass drum to what I had.. So it went from a four piece to an eight leaving out the bass and the snare.. That next Christmas I got a roto tom set.. That was a nice addition and gave me abilities to really do interesting fills.. 

By 1984 I had detuned my drumset, taking the heads off and cleaning my "kit" to mothball.. Was my drumming career over??  It sure seamed like it was.. Until that fateful evening when the phone rang.. It was Chuck calling to ask about weather I could still play drums and would I be interested.. Shit yes where do I sign up??..  This chapter could be sub titled gluten for punishment, or too stupid to say no.. Truth is I wanted more than anything else to play in a bar or even more.. Retune the kit we got a gig.. Well not entirely true.  He had a kit I would use all of the three practices I would be in.. Sadly the guy was wanting the band to be great at once and it wouldn't.. We weren't professionals or I should say I wasn't.. I still had the high school attitude of play loud and fast.. Then we sat down and had a discussion although I wasn't sure what he was talking about.. He was another who was a drummer in school.. He played in school but switched to guitar for the band he was trying to get into.. Back then there was a band in the Sidney school system, between the two functioning school there was a rock (pop rock) band called Blue Earth.. When the kids graduated from high school they stopped being a hobby band and went professional.. They held auditions for drummers and there were some who told me I should try for it.. I was having troubles getting to be in any band.. People had told me I should go to the west coast or Tennessee to try my luck.. I felt like I wasn't THAT good of a drummer.. I always said I could fake it fairly well, could fool a lot of people.. Well was I faking myself out in this band of Chucks.. Then it folded, but not before I got a set of cymbals and stands for the effort.. The guy was into selling musical equipment, one of the few stores of it's kind it was both a "brick and mortar" and a sort of online store in that he had ads in a few music magazines..  I was really disappointed when the band folded.. But held onto the hope that we were still a band, like before.. Then in May of that year the phone rang again.. This time it would be the start..


The phone rang and the guy's voice was sort of high pitched and all I could think was here we go again.. I wasn't in any hurry to leave Chucks band, and held up hope that he would say no.. He didn't, in fact it was his idea for Ernie to call me.. Again the feeling that I wasn't good enough to be in a band sneaked  into my head again..  I told Ernie I thought I would stick with Chuck.. He was persistent as he called again a little while later and asked to just get together and jam.. I reluctantly said yes and the weekend after Memorial day 1984 we jammed at a relatives of his basement.. We would practice there  few times.. At that point we had four members, Ernie played lead guitar and sang, his brother Joe played bass and sang, Frank played rhythm guitar (sort of) and me on the drums.. The name was already picked as Rizzen with the name having to do with the fact that I was in a band a few years ago that imploded, and the band he was in the year or so before also imploded so it was like rising from the ashes of several (?) bands like the phoenix ... Sure, a sort of concept name.. Ok whatever.. I guess that can work.. Better than going through the name the band contest amungst the members..  I guess..  I really was just happy to be in what I thought was two bands.. How cool is this??..

Two bands was better than one even though I wouldn't hear from Chuck again anytime soon..  I had the feeling that I still had the other band to fall back on although it really wasn't that way at all.. In the back of my mind there was a second band.. By the time July came and went I had been going to practice regularly, and something else happened in June though.. My older brother was talking to a guy he knew somewhere (I can't remember where) and told him I was in a rock band.. He seemed interested and wondered if we would be interested in a keyboard player.. At the time I didn't think so but as it turned out Ernie was interested.. So sometime in June or July Darren would join the band.. Five member band now..  And the music we were learning was a heavy rock type of music, in the vein of Scorpions and Dokken.. I had never heard of  a lot of the music we were playing, most of the music on the radio was top 40.. These groups were from England, Germany and other parts of the world.. My taste in music was very primitive compared to what these guys were into.. What a difference.. And Chuck had talked about learning songs by these groups so if his band were to call and go at it there would be little difference between the two..


Somewhere in the first year of the band I started to learn how to actually play the drums as  a rhythm instrument.. There were reasons for this  First and most important was the practices I couldn't hear the vocals at all. This would include the first gig, where I was nervous as hell for that reason and many others..

By late July or early August the band was stagnating.. The practices were starting to show nothing.. I remember I was helping my older brother move into a new house and they called and wanted to practice.. I had committed to helping him move and they were pissed that I couldn't make practice.. I remember this practice fairly well it was the first time I threatened to quit the band.. There would only be two, with the second being the end..  The second was an attempt to get them to start up again, the first was to get them to get it together.. The early practices were more jam sessions where we were playing some songs and writing others.. The early days of the band would see songs get written and practiced while not working on the cover songs nearly at all.. I was just wondering if we were a jam band (rehearsal band) exclusively or were we ever going to play??   They would talk me into staying.. Fine but let's try to get a gig somewhere soon.. We were by this time practicing in Ernies mother in laws garage, where we would be held captive by the weather.. Cold would be a word I would come to understand in a whole new way..

Rock Legend (part one)

Certain events or I should say a certain event has happened recently that has forced me to think about my own life, or that part of my life I should say.. That part is when I was a drummer.. Played drums anyway..   And it all started at the beginning, where it usually starts..

I started playing drums (a drum) way back when I was quite little.. Exactly when I started is anyone's guess, my own guess is around 4 or 5 years old.. Mom & dad gave me a little toy drum for Christmas one year.. Then there were the ice cream buckets and coffee can drumset I set up and played on the back porch.. By the time I was in fifth grade I was sure what I wanted to play in beginning band.. The flute... Just joking, I was hoping to get to play the drums and got my wish..  Getting to play the drums was a dream but I had never seen a drumset before.. That fateful night at the highschool watching that guy play the drumset supercharged me.. I just couldn't get over seeing that and even now thinking about how I felt that night at that basketball game watching them play for the game.. So seriously   COOLER THAN SHIT!!.  I was hooked and also playing the drumset would derail my learning to play the snare drum for the rest of my life..  When you learn to play the snare and then move over to the drumset you take the rudements to the drumset.. In my case it was a few rudements but for the most part it was I learned to play the drums separate from the snare.. In other words it was like a completely new instrument, sort of.. I mean it was percussive like the snare but it was more.. You play the bass drum with your right foot, the high hat with your left foot and right hand and the snare drum with your left hand, throwing in fills and moving from the snare to the bass drum mounted tom tom to the floor mounted tom tom... My drumset was a four piece which was perfect for learning on..


I don't know when I started to listen to records or tapes while playing nor can I remember what the first group was when I did this, but it would put me in a stadium somewhere playing to thousands of adoring fans.. Live albums were hard to play to, but studio were the best.. The album I listened to the most might shock some people.. It was Boston's Don't Look Back..  But there were others.

I got the drumset for Christmas when I was in seventh grade, had it mastered by the time the anniversary of getting it came around.. Sure.. True learning the drums was easy, or seemed easy, so was I doing it right??  Let's see right foot on the bass drum.. check.. Left foot on the high hat.. check.. Well that was the basics I mean how hard does it get from here?? It can be as hard as you want it to be.. I looked for other groups records to play to, but the transitions from drum to drum was easiest on the don't look back album.. Hitting the fills right on was paramount but later I would add my own fills and everything therein..



By the time I was in high school I figured everyone knew I had a drumset and could at the very least play it marginally well.. By the time I was a freshman I was second seat (chair) on the snare drum but wanted the drumset as well.. The first chair was a senior as was the second on the snare or at least it was that way to start the school year.. The second chair was held by Kim, first chair by Lenore.. That left me where??  I had been a utility drummer in the high school marching band from the time I was in seventh grade.. I wanted more.. I wanted to play the drumset and was fairly upset when I didn't get it.. But I felt then as I do now that I could have gotten the first chair, I was given second chair because I showed up for band everyday.. It was my favorite class and would be through my senior year.. I didn't challenge for the first seat at all, I felt like the upperclassmen might not like that so I waited until the next year when I got the first seat by default but was never challenged for it.. Although I did worry slightly that Bruce might want it, he challenged for second seat from Jamie and got it.. For the most part the drum section was stable and everyone played what they wanted.. I was first seat, Jamie/Bruce second.. My brother Bob on bass drum, Randy-O on tympany, and Lori on bells and light duty percussion (I think she could care less to be there, and I didn't care what she did)..

I remember the pep band days and playing pregame and having Franklin seeming to freak out.. Truth is I wasn't really listening to the band at all, I was just playing loud...  Rhythm, what rhythm..  The music teacher would try to show me how to play but I thought he couldn't play.. He really could sort of play the drumset, but then everyone can play the drums.. sort of..  Playing sustained is quite a difference.. If I could place myself as a drummer at that point I would say I was not a very good drummer in school... 

By the time I was a junior, the summer between my junior/senior year I was asked if I was interested in joining a rock band.. I said yes and a classmate got in touch with a guy he knew.. And that is when it all started.. The highs, the lows.. The good times.. and the not so good..

Getting together with this guy at the local Dairy Queen, we talked and I felt like such an outcast even right then.. I had never heard of these guys, they were local kids in high school and the town where they went to school was big enough that there had to be talent.. Chuck was clearly the leader, he played guitar and tried to sing but was clearly out of his league singing.. The bassist was Bob, he as well tried to sing a little.. The drummer I was replacing was a screw off artist.. He played enough to get in the band, he was good enough to fool the other two guys.. (there was a girl in the band but she was a goof at best, playing keyboards).. The second practice would be in my hometown and the third and forth as well but after enough trouble from the neighbors we needed a new place to practice.. My older brother was going with a girl that lived in the country and he was able to talk to the girlfriends mother into letting us practice there, in what was an old dairy barn building thing.. We practiced there until September when the band would implode..  Bummer of the grandest scales, I really only wanted to play at the school for a dance so badly.. But that wouldn't happen.. Not with this band..

As the band progressed we were in need of a second guitarist and they let it be known.. So when they brought in several guys one was this little guy I didn't pay any attention to, I was trying to figure some songs out and playing with another guitarist I thought would be the guy.. Then the little guy, a little mexicanish boy, came in and I have to say I wasn't impressed but then again we were trying so  many guitarists out and a lot of pretend guitarists.. The new guy, the new guitarist would be in the band for less than a week before the band imploded with the lead guitarist leaving to join another well established band, and the bassist joining another band.. The new guitarist I barely even got to know at all.. His name was Ernie  something.. Ward I think.. I wanted the other guy, his name was Bob  Ogle I think..  Hitting the end of the band was hard and admitting it was over was tough to.. I really liked playing, but it was just never going to go anywhere anytime soon..  Chuck joined another band that was well established named Blue Earth.. The other guys would do whatever and I would just go to school..

Prelude to rock legend

The "story" of Rock Legend  is as I say my memories of that time.. Wanting to be in a rock band as far back as junior high and feeling like this is what it would be like, imagining what it would be like and then getting to experience it.. Two different things all together, but I didn't know what to expect at all.. You see the glamour on the tv, or read the magazines and see the pictures and don't realize just how much work goes into it.. The fame that goes with it is offset with just a few heartbreaks.. Many issues here and there.. Why can't we do this or that.. The gigs I wished we had played, the times were not perfect but it was in fact the funnest times I had in my life.. Like I said if I had it all to do over I would have.. With nary a change of events.. There was a lot of missteps and other issues but it was what it was..  We hit, then that was all..  Over the next six days I tried to remember all that happened and it is my memories not anyone else from the band.. There are these six entries and then next week there is the "everything" entry that includes some extras that weren't included in the original set entries because I had a few more memories here and there.. Also a few more videos,  the entire of the demo tape...  The song Where Did I Go Wrong I typed in the name of the song in Google image search to see what I got and used that and a few pictures from the band that I have.. Was the band important to me enough to keep some memorabilia??  Some I did keep, not everything but I did keep some and when I got a scanner I scanned them into the computer..   %%%***###  So with this being said.. Tomorrow starts the entry ROCK LEGEND..  There were several names but that one stuck for me..  Six a.m. pacific time..

Badge Henry

itsnot the new year anymore

Kind of an interesting set of pictures.. The top being the new year being celebrated somewhere, and the bottom being ducklings on a pond that is cracking under the weight of duck excitement..  I hope everyone made it through the holiday season alright.. We got home around midnight, or half past as the gig for my little brother turned out not to be that great.. When you have four bands and their dj system as the closer it was bound to not be that good.. I told mom they weren't going to be happy with the event.. I've been there and done that and nothing has changed from back then to now.. Anyway, as we left town Wednesday morning early we hit rain and it stayed that way all the way home.. In fact it was a general downpour several times on the way home.. Then it would turn to snow later on and then.. We got a skiff, looked like we might get more but it wasn't that way.. Watched the games yesterday including the hockey game through the final bit, and then watched the Rose bowl.. The end of the bowls as they are, with the new "playoff" system adopted  for next year will mean the bowls as they are won't be anymore.. that is sad, and with attendance this year being so low, the Gator bowl had a lot of empty seats there, will there be fewer bowls next season??  Doubtful, they have sponsors that like the commercial use of the bowls.. I'm willing to bet the new playoff system will fail.. They keep saying 8 teams should make it.. I say use the four bowls, The Rose, Fiesta, Sugar and Orange to determine the four teams in the playoffs and have the title game be the Saturday before the super bowl.. The week before the super bowl, have the NCAA title game on the Saturday, the pro bowl that following Sunday then the super bowl the next Sunday.. That only makes sense to me..

Badge Henry