October 15, 1979, my 12th birthday, was the day that my rock & roll fate was sealed. For my birthday present, my parents let my two older sisters take me to the Kiss Love Gun tour concert. I am still not sure why, it was either because I was relentlessly begging them or because my parents thought if I was tagging along, my sisters would stay out of trouble, either way, I got to go.
My Mom bought me a cheap beat up electric guitar for Christmas when I was 12. Even though the guitar was in pretty bad shape, I still thought it was the best thing ever. My parents did not have enough money to afford guitar lessons for me, and even if they could have, there was not a guitar teacher anywhere near the small town in Iowa we lived in. The only thing I had to learn from was an old beginner guitar book and since I did not know anybody who knew how to play the guitar to help me understand any of the content in the book, I struggle and floundered along for a year until I finally gave up.
After my mom passed away, I decided to honor my mom and finally learn how to play the guitar, and my journey to being the next wanna-be guitar god began.