Years ago, I had come up with the title for my memoirs, if I was going to do anything exciting enough to warrant them. This title stemmed from a period in my life that was at once very rewarding and deeply painful at the same time. It starts here.
In the late 80's, early 90's I was still searching for the one area in which I would make my mark. Although I had some success with stand up comedy and improv acting, I still felt drawn to my real passion...male modeling. Okay, maybe not that. What I really loved to do more than anything else was music. As far back as I can remember, I loved how music made me feel. My grandmother on my mom's side was one of the first women to graduate the Yale school of music around 1920. She worked her way through college by playing piano in a silent movie theater as the movie was running. When I used to visit her as a child, she would have me sit on the bench with her as she played classical music. My favorite was always Beethoven and to this day, "Moonlight Sonata" will make me tear up. It always reminds me of her and that time that was all my own.
Later in life I learned several instruments including trumpet and baritone horn, which I played in the high school band. But I really loved percussion and started playing drums at about 14 years old. I would set up my drums in the basement and attach red and blue lights to the ceiling beam, pointing down at me. With my stereo behind me, I would blast 70's rock and play along. To my parent's credit, they never once told me to turn it down or stop playing. I really loved them for that. When I moved to Ca. I drove across the country in my Chevy van with all that I owned in the back, including my drum set. After living in Ca for several years, I started playing with a few bands. I was also acting and one day, a friend of mine introduced me to a friend of his. This guy was looking for someone just like me who was an actor and a musician for a special play he was doing. Seems the play was written by another friend of his from Texas, where they had all grown up together. the play was about a blues guitarist in Texas who's 8 month pregnant wife is forcing him to give up his dream of music to join the real world by getting a job. He promises he will but finds out an A & R guy from a record label will be coming to his last show. He feels this could be his big break. He has a band playing with him and in the play, the band actually needs to perform several numbers. This is where I come in.
They needed a drummer who could also act. They already had a bass player who sang, the guitar player (my friends friend) and a harmonica player (the guitar players brother). I auditioned for them and when they found out I could sing better than the bass player while also playing drum, they hired me instantly.
Rehearsals began for the play and the band. My character's name was Doodad and that is all they ever called me. they almost never referred to me as Scott.
They also had a celebrity connection. One of the guys they grew up with in Texas was Lou Diamond Philips form La bamba and Young Guns fame. He helped produce the play. The band actually rehearsed in his house that he had just purchased in the Hollywood hills off Outpost road for himself and his wife. While renovations where going on, only Lou lived there and we had the run of the place. We used to practice, then take a break and play poker in the game room with Lou and Brandon Lee, Bruce Lee's son and also a friend of the guys.
I remember one night during a break in practicing, Lou got a call on his cell phone. Keep in mind, this was the early 90's and cell phones were still brand new. he had one of the fancy Motorola flip phones that were popular with the young, rich and famous. He answers the phone and immediately gestures for us to be quiet. It was Robert Deniro on the phone, calling from his car! He and Lou Diamond were in talks about opening a restaurant together. We were all star struck as Deniro had just done "the Untouchables" and was going strong.
As we listened to the one sided conversation, we were like little kids trying to get Lou to laugh and pushing each other. All of a sudden, Lou starts saying what would become the cell phone mantra for years to come:
"Hello? hello? Can you hear me now? Helloooo?" The call had dropped. We just pictured Deniro in his car driving down Santa Monica blvd going, (in my best Deniro as Capone impression) Hello? Hello? Mother fucker! I want that operator dead! I want her family dead! Hello?"
There was something else going on at this time that I was not aware of until much later. By the way, the play had opened and closed the same night. It was a really bad play. But the band turned out to be really good so we stayed together. We even kept the name of the band from the play. We were called "the Pipefitters". Great blues name, huh? turns out, all the guys were plumber helpers in Texas at one time and thats what helpers were called there.
During the time we were practicing in Lou's house, we found out he had a connection to a pretty famous musician. His wife, Julie was the video director for Melissa Ethridge. She was a favorite of mine, even though I was not a lesbian (at the time). She had a powerful but beautiful voice and a presence that just grabbed you. She also lived up the street from Lou's new house. One night she came over and jammed with the band. We knew this was a special event and set up a video camera to record it. I still have that tape. We did several blues tunes with me on drums and her singing. Then we duetted on a Three Dog Night song that turned out to be a favorite of us both. It was a song called, "Never been to Spain". The vocals start out in the lower range and shoot up to the higher ranges as it progressed. It was a perfect song for our 2 vocals. It was probably the highlight of my musical life. the song has no real ending and it seemed like neither of us wanted to stop. We finally had to but on the tape you can hear her scream, "That song has no end!" and laughing.
What none of us in the band knew then but found out later, was that Lou's wife Julie was having an affair with Melissa and ended up leaving Lou for her. They "married" and had 2 kids through an anonymous sperm donor. It was later rumored to have been David Crosby's stuff of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
The band was getting better and better so I worked hard to get us gigs around town. The boys wanted to do a small tour of Texas so we loaded up my van and I drove all the way there and back. At the time, I was pushing 500 lbs and struggled with loading and unloading the drums. I always had to have help from the other guys. I found out later that they resented me for that. Also turns out that they had been planning on firing me after we got back from Texas. I was oblivious to all this. We played in Austin and Dallas and had a fun time. At the end of the last gig I started getting a pain in my right wrist. I found out weeks later that I was getting the onset of Carpel tunnel syndrome. I ended up getting a cortisone shot directly into my wrist. It was the most physical pain I had ever experienced (up to that point) but a much worse pain was coming down the pike.
Days after we returned from Texas, the guitar player who had first hired me came into my apartment that I shared with his brother the blues harp player. He informed me that I was out of the band. I asked him why, not believing my ears. he told me point blank, "You are just too heavy and it is affecting all of us."
I said the following and this is what my memoirs or book or whatever I end up doing will be called. I asked him, "Are you telling me I'm too fat to play the Blues?"
That sums up my life, gang. It will be on my headstone when I die. Here lies Scott...too fat to play the blues.
I was devastated when this happened. But it did give me a great title for my book.
No comments:
Post a Comment