I owe a lot to my cousin John. When I told my parents I wanted to get an electric guitar, they asked John to help find one for me. My dad was a piano player and John was his musical nephew – a guitar player. John is 26 years older than me – he’s at one end of our ‘cousin’ generation and I’m the youngest at the other end.
Of course, when you have an electric guitar, you also need an amp. I didn’t have one and there was no way my parents could afford to buy me one. So John lent me one of his. It was a home-made valve amp with a 12″ speaker box. Nothing great, but it was an amp.
So all through high school, I played through that amp. At some stage I bought a distortion pedal (for $20!), but that amp stayed with me for around six years. I had a friend buy a Marshall (he worked part-time for over a year to afford it), and whilst I was jealous, it taught me something very important – having good gear is nowhere near as important as being able to play well.
And whilst I didn’t see a lot of John, he was very influential. When Australian band Cold Chisel announced they were breaking up in 1983, John and his wife Sue took me to their final Adelaide concert. October 23, 1983 at the Apollo Stadium. I still have the t-shirt. It was the first ‘proper’ concert I’d been to and, at 14 years of age it made a huge impression on me.
When Eric Clapton came to town in the early 90’s, we went to the concert together. I saw him in the audience at an Eric Johnson concert and a Robben Ford concert in Adelaide.
John celebrated his 70th birthday on the weekend and decided he wanted to play guitar for the night (great idea!!). So he got a bunch of mates from previous bands and performed music from the different eras that he’d been part of. And he asked me to play with him. We’d played together at my 40th and had a great time so he wanted to do it again. He’d heard me play on a You Tube video for a Robben Ford Competition that Truefire had put on, so we used that track to jam together.
This is totally unrehearsed, and a lot of fun. So much fun that when we finished, John said “that was too short, let’s do it again” so we did! This is the first version (we were just warming up!).
Hope you enjoy the video – we had a lot of fun making it!
Finally, can I encourage you all to be a ‘John’ to someone in your life. Find a friend or relative who’s interested in playing guitar and help them. I had a few people I looked up to when I first started, and without their encouragement, I doubt I would have continued. I’m so glad I did, because playing guitar has given me many years of joy.
Did you enjoy the video? Leave a comment below and let me know what you think.