It all started with a 12 year old boy asking “Santa” for a guitar one Christmas long ago. Well……..we all know how those little kid wishes go; they ask for something big and play with it for a week and it’s over. They ask for a pet and promise to take complete and total care of it and that lasts a month, at best. So here we go. I decided I was not going to break the bank on a guitar so I went to a pawn shop and found a $50 acoustic and that was good enough for starters.
RJ took lessons at 6 Strings Down in Plainfield for about a year and did pretty well. After about a year, he came home and said he didn’t want to take lessons anymore. I was crushed and asked him why. He said “because they can’t teach me anymore”. I ask him if he was going to continue to play……….”well DUH YES” was his response. He watched endless videos of Eddie Van Halen, focusing in on every move his fingers made. A few years later he purchased a Randy Rhoads electric guitar and mastered it. He went back and forth playing the acoustic and electric. He was awesome and I love hearing him play every chance I get.
When he was 20, he said he’d like to try the banjo so for his 21st birthday, I bought him a banjo and he mastered it. He watched video after video after video of Steve Martin playing claw hammer style and he mastered it. He is so talented and can play anything from Hank Williams, Sr. (his favorite) to Metallica to Waylon Jennings to Van Halen to the Carter Family to Grandpa Jones and George Jones.
He was in a band for a short time but he was more into the old classic, folk and bluegrass music so he stepped out of the band. I’ve always said he was a very young man in a 90 year old’s music mindset. Not a thing wrong with that.
Last year he purchased an open back banjo and a custom made Martin guitar. He is a happy guy! There’s no stopping him.
Absolutely wonderful Amber. Consider a book!😊
You’re a proud Mum and rightfully so. Great post.