I'm getting older. At 51, I don't feel old but the number bothers me nonetheless. If I was given the choice of being a teenager or young adult here in 2023- I would stick to 51. I'm not into the modern world and find myself turning into a highly nostalgic person. To an extent, I can live in the past as long as I tend to the business of the present and don't miss out on the many things I enjoy today. After all, in 30 years- if I'm not dead- I'll be thinking back on my heyday of 2023!
If I had to pick my favorite time, it would be 1987 (with a bit of 86 and 88). This was a time where my interest in music started to really become the priority. Whether it was my own music or the incredible music and inspiration of that period. Slayer were my Beatles and Yngwie Malmsteen was my Hendrix.
I had my first really good band (I think we called ourselves "Oblivion") and I had to tutor most musicians I worked with. That was okay with me because I could mold them into the kind of players I wanted. The power trio. I think our set list contained Metallica, Van Halen, Scorpions, Venom, Tesla, Wasp, Judas Priest, Dokken, Yngwie, etc. It was great because the music that was popular was the music I liked.
In my sophomore year I started getting into lots of trouble; skipping school, dropping LSD, drinking Jack Daniels before school- all to the soundtrack of Slayer, Venom, Bathory, Celtic Frost, Mercyful Fate, Voivod, Destruction, etc. It was great. My parents didn't agree so they chopped all my hair off, pulled me out of secular school and sent me to a very strict and private Christian school. I liked it because it was a great environment to rebel in. King Diamond shirts peeked out of my button up dress shirts and Slayer's "Haunting the Chapel" was often on my Walkman before I entered the chapel. Such a little snot!! My own music was awful and blasphemous and will forever remain in the vault. Projects like "Corruption" and "Satanic Warhorse" still get an occasional listen though. Some of the posters that decorated my walls as a 15 year old are still on display as a 51 year old.
I couldn't smoke cigarettes so I found nose tobacco (snuff) and that would get me through. I was caught doing a huge line of it in the restroom and suspended for a week for "using hard drugs". I put a dead mouse in a pentagram on the playground and got into big trouble for performing a"Satanic sacrifice". Really?? It was great. Looking back, I really liked those teachers and kids.....I was just a typical Metalhead teenager and it caused such problems. My parents began censoring my music, checking the contents of my bag after I went record shopping. I would buy a Stryper cassette as cover and slip the Venom tape in my jacket. Problem solved. I'm a Stryper fan to this day because of that.
I got tired of being censored so I started buying instrumental albums from the Shrapnel Records label- my parents couldn't argue with this and that music set the stage for what I wanted to do in life. It was in 1988 that I was returned to regular high school, started teaching guitar and saved enough cash to buy a Fender Stratocaster (which I still own and use). I never cut my hair again either and yes, I'm wearing eyeliner in that picture. It was just part of the times.
Even though I call myself nostalgic, I don't know. I never left behind the things that shaped me as a musician and human being. I got rid of the booze, drugs and mouse sacrifices though. Long live 1987!
