Last night I had the opportunity of a lifetime. One that I can be sure I’ll never forget. I met my dad’s long lost brother. His name is James Taylor. OK, maybe not his long lost brother, but at least his brotha-from-anotha-motha. They sing and play the same, have the same sense of humor, and lots of times they even look the same. Nonetheless, I have grown up on the music of James Taylor, and I think it’s safe to say that he’s one of my biggest musical influences, if not THE biggest. There was no way around this, as I was forced to listen to his light-rock sound even during shred-metal days of my earlier youth.
Connections came through to make this all happen. Through a friend of a friend, my wife (who grew up on Carole King, so it worked out well) and I were able to score a couple of $1,000 tickets for free! We got to show up early for the sound check and got to hear the band practice a bunch of tunes. It was hard to imagine what it was like for them, sound checking with songs like “Sweet Baby James” and “I Feel the Earth Move”… I mean, they’ve gotta be so tired of playing those songs.
After the sound check they came up and did a meet and greet with all the crazy fans. What can I say, I was a bit star-struck – but I was at least able to tell James what an influence he had had on me. Look, I even got a picture!
