Beginnings

I didn't always want to be a drummer.  In fact, for a while I hated the idea.  Drummers just didn't catch my eye as a little kid.  They were always sitting in the back.  They never got up front.  Who knew their names?  And more importantly, who of MY FRIENDS knew their names?  But I think I was destined to be one, even since I was a little tyke.  More after the jump...

When I was six, I lived in Maryland.  If anyone has seen the movie Super 8, that is how I remember my childhood looking, though I was way younger than the kids in that movie, (and the landscape was flatter.  Also, I never fought ACTUAL aliens in my town.)  But I knew those kids, and wanted to play with their toys.  And a few of them took me under their 8 and 10-year-old wings, but I was always NOT the hero in our games.  I was the support guy, the guy who made the heroes look good.  Chewbacca.  Richard Dreyfus.  Robin.  Maybe even Alfred, depending on who else was playing.  Never Han Solo.  Never Officer Brody.  Never Batman.  I tried to roll with it.  Once, we played "Shark Hunters", and I said I was the cartographer, thinking that sounded pretty cool, and would let me sit on the treehouse and draw some cool maps.  But they made me the mechanic.  Oh well.

So it was when Mike Gates and Justin, the street "frenemies", decided they would be KISS in Tommy's backyard.  I wanted to be The Demon, or the Starchild.  I'd have settled for Ace, but I got...The Cat.  And there was nothing I could do about it.  They gave me a couple sticks and I beat on some old log - I must've looked dour, because they tried to coach me, but I had no idea what it all meant.  I saw how guitar players rocked out.  I never paid attention to the drummers, and never thought I would.  We didn't play as KISS for very long, but I did watch "KISS meets the Phantom of the Park" when the neighbors babysat me.  I don't remember much of it.

The drumming game was traumatic, though, cuz I remember that pretty well.  I really didn't want to be The Cat.  What a goof.  Little did I know...it was my destiny.  Now, when I sing "In the Garage" from my drumkit during some of my "Geezer" shows, and I get to the line "I've got Peter Criss", well...it means more than most realize.  More than I realized at first, actually.

As for my kid - He loves the drums.  Loves.  And guitar.  And piano.  He'll probably play them all, and instead of playing "KISS", he'll be "Skrillex" and make me crazy.  We'll see about that.