The trigger for a lifelong love of music was my first sight of the album cover for Iron Maiden. I’m Brazilian so I didn’t speak in English, but I could translate, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son and it made me wonder even more. What is this? I listened to it with my friend and we tried to understand the lyrics, but this was impossible...
This vacation was quite different from others I had taken. It was just me and my very best friend. We rented a van, threw a mattress in the back, and drove through Sweden and Norway for three and a half weeks. During our other trips we’d backpack, stay in hostels, and go into different cities spending time with all...
“It was a sink or swim moment in my life, I felt like this was gonna make me or break me, and I damn sure wasn’t gonna let it break me. When I was 21 my mom died of cancer. Before she passed away she told me ‘you gotta keep going, because life goes on’. Those were the three hardest words I’ve ever heard, life goes on...
With everything that’s been going on this year; coronavirus, rioting, murder hornets, political divide, and so many people struggling. I keep think of that song by REM, It’s the End of the World as We Know It. But it’s the next line that I really love, “and I feel fine”. I mean there’s always gonna be...
For much of my youth I was forbidden to listen to rock music by my stepmom. I was finally allowed to listen to the radio when I was 10 or 11, and that’s when I heard Bruce Springsteen. I immediately connected to his songs because he was singing about getting out, getting away, which is exactly what I wanted to do. I lived in a lot...
Yeah, maybe you have to go to work everyday to take care of your family, pay your mortgage and be responsible. But at least you have the ability a couple times a year to go out and be part of a scene that’s very different from your normal, stress filled life. That’s a really important part of why a lot of people came to Dead...
“I don’t think I’ve ever been more connected to an album than when I fully dove into ‘Voodoo’ by D’Angelo. I was going through some pretty serious heartbreak and depression at the time. I mean it was the biggest of my life, and that album absolutely came alive for me. It was something I could kind of...
“I can’t really articulate the magnitude of how U2’s music resonates with me. I guess, the best way to put it is that I always identify with something in their songs, I just get so much out of them. One of the most difficult times of my life was when I lost my daughter, she was stillborn. During that intensely emotional...
“We were at odds my whole adult life. My mom didn’t like my lifestyle. She wanted me to stay close to home, but I had big dreams and moved across the country to California. We just couldn’t find a way to get along with each other for so many years. Then she had a serious medical condition that caused me to come back...
“I graduated high school in 1970, so my high school years were the 60’s. We thought the messages being sung by the Beatles and the Stones; Janice and Jimi were going to change the world. I went to concerts in college and listened to music constantly. Then I got married, got a job and moved into the work-a-day reality. In 1979, my...