killswitch

joel 

My dear friend Joel is leaping into new places. His band (www.killswitchengage.com) has been nominated for a grammy. They're nominated for best metal act or somesuchthing. If there were any justice in the world they'd win.
Joel was at my house about 6 months ago or so to listen to my new record. Just sat there. Listening. After every song he would give great, bold, well thought out compliments. He just wanted to hear my stuff. REALLY wanted to hear it. To get inside it. Afterwords we talked about gear and musicality. Then we reminised about the time we would sit around together (we both used to teach guitar at the same shop) and reharmonize songs just to make us laugh our asses off. Our personal favorite was Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven". We took every major chord and made it minor and vice versa. I remember writing "you won't see me cloudy in your sky" in the waiting room of that shop. I had scribbled the words on the back of a flyer. It was totally silly. Joel comes up and reads them and loves it. You just wrote a little pop love song that talks about vikings and elves and beer? I recently turned him on to Robbie Fulks and Elliott Smith. He also told me that my CD is on constantly in their tour bus. Dude, lets get lunch...I'm on my way up and I've got my new CD...or...I've got my new guitar I want you to play...or...I've burned a bunch of CD's for you. When he met my father he addressed him as "Sir". They don't make people much better than this guy.
Joel has made me young again. Made me realize that life is electric and swirling. Made me realize that there are no boundries. Metal. Pop. Jazz. It's all about the fucking passion. A hardcore/punk song can be just one voice and one guitar. It's about the spirit. It's about the intensity. It's about being genuine. You've given me more than I could ever give you. Thanks. Thanks for making me a better person.