Music & Family

This does not feel particularly appropriate for a school assignment, but at least they had good stories.

My dad is blue, and my mom is green!

(And, for reference, my dad worked at The Record Bar in the 80's, so that's what he means when he says work.)

 

 

 What role did music play in your life when you were my age?

Very very very big part. That’s when I was working in it, so the literature I read, the magazines, was all centered around music. What was popular, what was gonna be popular, and, with likeminded friends, all of our conversations were about music.

A very very big part. That was the entertainment, was going to see a local live band, big concert, or just riding around listening to music, or talking about the latest album that came out.

 

What was your favorite kind of music when you were my age?

Mine was mostly metal, but I listened to everything. That was during the hair metal days. I listened to everything. I liked rock and some of the new wave, but I also started listening to jazz then too because of work.

Mine was hair metal, during that time. I also loved Motown, (what do you call The Cure and all that?) alternative, and funk. We also went out to J-Traxx and listened to the latest dance music.

 

Was it popular at the time?

Yes, very much so.

Yes.

 

Do you still like this kind of music?

Absolutely, it brings back good memories. But some of the more popular ones like “Sweet Child O’ Mine” gets on my nerves now because I heard it so much.

Yes. It brings me back to the place that I was when I first heard it. I was listening to 5150 the other day and I still remember when I first heard it in the A&P parking lot.

 

How did you first get into this kind of music?

It evolved. One of my first favorite bands were Kiss, Black Sabbath, and Deep Purple. The hair metal came as an offshoot of the heavt metal bands. They were all inspired by the heavy metal bands, too. But I didn’t like ballads. Ballads ruined hair metal.

I grew up loving funk. James Brown was the first album I ever bought for myself. I used to love Johnny Cash. Honestly, one of my friends first let me listen to Van Halen and I absolutely loved it. Blondie’s Rapture came out and that helped too. When we were really young, we’d look forward to the weekend and sit up and watch Midnight Special, which introduced me to a lot of the music that I still love. I remember specifically finding Redbone.

I saw John Cougar on that show for the first time.

 

How did your family feel about it?

(laughing) Well, seeing as how my father thought they stopped making music when Ernest Tubb died, it’s safe to say that he did not like my music and wondered where he went wrong when raising me. My brother, he liked rock music, but I had to replace my Back in Black album five times because he’d steal it.

My older sister got into hair metal after we did. And I remember that my mother went into my sister’s room and found AC/DC’s Highway to Hell album with Angus Young wearing a devil hat, and she about had a fit. She broke it in two, threw it in the fireplace, and said she wouldn’t be having devil music in the house.

 

How did you engage with the culture surrounding your preferred genre?

We were heavily immersed in the subculture. I had long fingernails and I would use them to measure how high I teased my hair.

We had long hair, wore black, so I guess it really influenced our style.

 

Do you have a favorite memory associated with music?

Concerts were huge. One of the first concerts I ever went to by myself was to see Rush with a friend. Also, going to see The Scorpions on a school night. In Charlotte, we would hang out waiting for the band to leave the arena. Oh, and as a matter of fact, one time after soccer practice, one of my friends from England and I drank a whole bottle of wine riding around and listening to The Police in the graveyard behind Converse. You should include that. Because you go to Converse.

I was in the front row at a Van Halen concert. I specifically bought an unused pair of panties to throw on stage. I was taking them out of my jean jacket, David Lee Roth asked me to give them to him, and he wore them around his hand as a bracelet for the rest of the concert. And the scariest was when Steven Tyler bent down at an Aerosmith concert and I almost got squished against the rail. (Yes, this is terribly embarrassing to include, but it's also too good of a story to leave out.)

Tell me about your relationship with live music.

When I worked at the record store, we would call up the record label and tell them how much I loved the opening act. Not many people would call them, so they’d give us free tickets. That’s how I got to see so many headliners. I saw Cheap Trick four times that way. My favorite thing about concerts, one of my favorite things you can’t replicate, is when you’re all excited at the concert and the lights go down, the music fades, the crowd goes wild, and the stage lights turn on. That short little time, it kicks everything into overdrive.

I don’t know what to say about it specifically. I got hit in the head with a drumstick at a Night Ranger concert because he was trying to give it to me while I wasn’t paying attention. A lot of our friends were in local bands too, so we’d go watch them play. Almost every weekend.

 

What impact did the music you liked back then leave on you today?

I mean, I still like it.

Lasting friends.

Oh, that’s good. Yeah, a mutual bond with friends that liked the same music. It still kinda makes you feel young sometimes, too, when you hear a certain song.

I really enjoyed putting you on to these bands as well, passing it along. And that you never had to listen to Ernest Tubb on my account. I also like that your first memory is a Red Hot Chili Peppers album.

What do you think about my music taste?

I love it! You have a wide, wide selection. Very diverse. And I love that you’ve put me on to bands too. Like Babymetal! I told the guys at work about Babymetal! And now there’s a man with dreads in his beard that loves them!

Yes, I agree. I love that you love the classics, what’s current, and what’s eclectic.