I just found a great new interview with my favorite musician alive, Jon Brion
http://www.jonbrion.net/blog/off-camera-24-jon-brion/
He talked about how he used to flunk everything in school because he absolutely knew without a shadow of a doubt that he would grow up and be a musician.
I read the same thing about Muhammad Ali when he was in high school. His principal pretty much said that Ali did nothing in school but talk about how he was going to be the Heavyweight Champion of the World. The principal was inclined to believe him and let it go.
Man, I’m envious of that. I thought I heard my life’s calling the first time I saw a midnight showing of the Who’s movie The Kids Are Alright (precisely the moment during “Won’t Get Fooled Again” where Pete Townshend slid across the stage on his knees right into the lens of the camera). After that movie, I totally wanted to be Pete Townshend, but after years of struggling with music I had to admit that I just didn’t have the gift. The secret to life isn’t that you should do something that you love for a living. The secret is you need to love what you are good at. If you are lucky, they are both one and the same thing.
That’s why my music book’s forward is the following: For my mom, all the guys and girls who bought guitars after seeing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show and didn’t have an ounce of musical talent between them, and Buck Naked, who after all was just out walking his dog.
Hey, when you sat in with Sleestak at the Cleveland Undergound, you were pretty good!