MACHINE HEAD NEWS!

July 18, 2013, posted by Crumbs.

The General Journals: We Should All Be So Lucky

BIRTH

I'm going to be 46 this Friday.

46!!??

Born under a bad moon on July 19th, 1967.

Where the hell does the time go!?

I'll tell you where. It goes into a whole lotta rockin'! We’re talking about an entire lifetime of playing metal for a living. Since I was 16 years old I've been playing some heavy ass music, damn near 30 years now and I tell you what…I may look a little bit older, I may crawl outta bed a little bit slower, but I'm out here killing this shit!! Giving kids half my age a run for their money and just plain KILLING IT! Let's see how many of these kids are still around when they get to my age? Will they still be playing heavy? Will they still be in it for life? Will they still love it? Will they stick it out through all the up’s and downs 30 years into it? Will they still be in it for the thrill? And above all, will they still able to make 5,000 to 10,000 people lose their fucking minds night in, night out?

We'll see.

It's been fun getting here and I'm feeling really good right now. 46 years old...? Nah... 46 years young motherfucker!

WORKING OUT

Out here on the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival tour there is a guy named Ari (short for Aristotle) who's the soundman / tour manager for Job For A Cowboy and who's also a trainer. Dude is super cool, (as are all the JFAC dudes), and JFAC brought a shit ton of weights, dumbells, kettle-bells, bench press, and have been WAY nice about letting other people use it. Seriously, these guys have more weightlifting gear in their trailer than music gear, LOL! They've named their "gym" the "Globo Gym" after the Ben Stiller / Vince Vaughn movie "Dodgeball". Hella funny. I haven't hit the weights hard in years, and this Ari dude has such a positive vibe, he's really inspired me to get outta my rut.

Sure, I been running for a few years, push-ups, pull-ups, but hitting the weights...? Man, been a while. It feels good, really good. I wake up, lay around for a few minutes, then jump outta bed, throw my workout clothes on, and join them in the hot, humid sun. No breakfast, no coffee, just get out there and do it. If I start fartin' around with coffee and internet and all that shit I just lose all motivation, and anyway, it supposedly burns more calories with no food in your stomach.

Yes, being in a band keeps you young.

SPOTIFY

Thom Yorke from Radiohead went on a big rant about the evils of Spotify the other day. It was so random and out of the blue it was a total WTF? It's funny how Spotify has come to represent the bad thing for (it seems) older people... er uh, people my age *ahem*.

In fact I was talking to a buddy out here on Mayhem the other day, and he was telling me about a bands new record I should check out, and I was like "oh yeah, thanks for the reminder, I'll have to Spotify that," and he gave me a little shit like "oh man, you gotta go and 'buy' that shit," and I was like, " I AM buying it, I got Spotify Premium, they're getting money off my stream and if I love it, I'll most likely buy it on iTunes, but dude, I'm on tour, at an amphitheater in the middle of nowhere, when am I going to buy that shit at a store? That most likely doesn't even carry said record?"

That's the beauty of Spotify. I can get music in an instant, no waiting, no trips to the store, literally within 30 seconds! For 10 bucks a month!! Shit, I spend 5 times that on fucking coffee which doesn't do jack shit for me!!

See what getting old does?

It makes you scared of the future. It makes you scared of what other people may think of you, it makes you scared to adapt, when really, the only thing that will allow us to survive is adapting. When you're young, you just don't care, you're gonna rebel, you're gonna do your own thing, you want to find about the "newest thing", you're willing to give things a shot, and if it sucks, you're quick to ditch it, but if it's great, you tell everyone you know.

Do I ever miss being 22? Hell no! I was a cranked-out, tweaked-out, heavy drinking, gun-toting, idiot without a car! I don't need to be young again! I'm better now than I've ever been but most importantly I don't "feel" old. I don't want to be like Thom Yorke thinking Spotify is a scary thing. The world changed, and that's a good thing.

ANNIVERSARY

2 days ago was Genevra and my 13th wedding anniversary. She surprised me the day before, by opening up my bunk at 7AM and going "hey", Happy Anniversary!". She had planned with the whole crew and band to have secret trip out, and everyone kept it under wraps. I had NO idea, it was so fuckin cool. We had a day and a half of just hanging, and fun, and gettin' hammered, and watching Rob Zombie, dancing, no stress, didn't have to drive home, man, it was fucking amazing. It was like a day long date! It was the first time in 10 years she had been out on the road, since we had kids really. It was really fucking special.

THE FALL OF GIANTS

Reading books on my iPad in my bunk before I go to sleep, is one my favorite ways to pass the time on tour. I just finished part 1 of a trilogy of books called "The Fall Of Giants" by "Pillars Of The Earth" author Ken Follet. This dude is one of my FAVORITE authors, he is so ridiculously fucking good, but be warned, his books are EPIC in length. Part 1 of TFOG takes place from 1914 to 1920 during World War I. And let me tell you, talking about the world being a different place, man, our world was way different back then.

People rarely had toilets in their houses, the shitter would be a block away, and shared by 20 other houses in the neighborhood (kinda like being on tour!). Women couldn't vote, blacks couldn't vote, shit, a lot of whites couldn't vote, and if someone went away you might not speak to them at all for several months, maybe several years!

Reading this book, puts a lot of shit in perspective, as did his previous book the staggering epic "Pillars of the Earth", our society is so petty, we're spoiled, entitled to convenience.

Am I worried about growing old, or Spotify, or needing reading glasses, or being outta shape, FUCK NO!! I'm stoked to be alive! I'm stoked I made it this far! I'm stoked to still play the game!! I'm stoked I did what I did and lived to tell about it!!

We should all be so lucky.



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