In my high school years, I became friends with an older kid by maybe 2 or 3 years…  his name is Joe Soliz.  He played guitar in a rival band, and we started hanging out together, just jamming and trading licks in the ol’ Quad Cities in Illinois.

A brief time had passed, and the next thing I knew Joe moved to Southern California.

I, on the other hand was experiencing the effects of smoking too much weed, failing high school, no job, no girl… basically feeling like the biggest loser on the planet.  I was overweight, breaking out in my face from so much junk food, and so low in self-esteem I couldn’t take looking at myself in the mirror anymore. A re-invention was needed.  No idea how to do it, but knew something had to give.

I reached out to Joe and asked if I could come visit him for a month to see how I liked it.  He graciously agreed, so I sold my car to buy my very first plane flight to Los Angeles.  Never forget it was a prop plane that brought me those two thousand miles.  A loud flight it was!

When I arrived, he and his roommate had a kind of spare room they’d throw clothes and old towels in, and I got to sleep in there… probably on the floor.  I honestly don’t recall.  What I do recall was the taste of freedom.  The taste of California climate.  The sun, the palm trees, the girls…  I’d walk down the street in the early afternoons, always barefoot, to a place called Licorice Pizza and shuffle through all the new releases and listen to music through my new So Cal set of ears.

The first album I bought was Dixie Dregs ‘What If’.  Steve Morse’s guitar work was just incredible, and still being a fan of the band Kansas, they sounded a bit like an instrumental version.  Next was Karla Bonoff’s first record.

Both of these were playing in-store and I had to buy them immediately after hearing.  I have both copies to this day, and though the Dregs have kind of been abandoned by my musical taste as an older man, I will hold Karla’s record as a lifer.  Whenever it comes back into rotation it’s like hearing it again for the first time.

Anyway, I was enjoying California just for the sheer presence of it.  Loving beyond words a brief month I got to feel like I had no past… no definitions of who I was.  Literally soaking up and sucking up any sunshine and air I could get, I was happy to be alive for the first time in a long time.  As silly as it may sound every living thing… even a palm tree in the middle of a street median… would make me think ‘wow… that’s a California tree… it looks so different and cool’.  I was almost jealous of the tree!  That’s how much I loved it here.  That kind of feeling is absolutely priceless.

My mind started to work overtime as to how I might be able to make a go of it here.  What would I do?  Joe’s roommate played in Vegas on weekends and was always saying the casinos paid really well if you could get a gig.  So I set out to do that.  My days were spent soaking up the California dream, and the nights were spent playing guitar with Joe and talking about how we could get gigs.

One day Joe got a call from a service he belonged to called The Musician’s Contact Service.  It was a way for musicians to meet other musicians and form bands, find players etc.  On this particular evening I could hear Joe pick up the phone.  “Hi, yeah I play guitar.  What’s that?  No, no sorry man I don’t sing… but you know what?  Let me pass the phone over to a friend of mine who’s visiting.  He sings really good and can play too”.

As he passed the phone to me he whispered  ‘Jude this guy says he has a record deal but listen man, most of these people are full of shit so beware’.

I took the phone as a quick-study-street-smart imposter and said “Hi” (almost disbelieving before even giving him a chance)
The guy on the other end of the phone very nicely said “Hey! My name’s Moon and I have an album out on Capitol Records.  I’m looking for guys to be in my band for some upcoming tours.”  “So I hear you can play and sing really well?”

“Yes I can do that”

“Well, what do you sound like… or I mean, can you give me a description of your voice?”

“Hmm… let me put it this way.  I can sing anything Paul McCartney can sing, ok?”

“Haha, wow that’s pretty confident.  I guess I’ll have to hear you now!”

So to make a long story short, he sent a friend down to Anaheim to pick me up, take me to Sun Valley where he was renting a house, I auditioned for him in his living room,  then spent the next 3 years of my life on the road, traveling every city of the US and 2-3 times a year to Europe.

This was a Godsend.  I couldn’t have worked it out better if someone gave me a ‘blueprint your future kit’.  For someone like me, an untrained musician who grew up on radio and rock & roll, to get this kind of experience… let me put it this way.  I’ve heard we have angels in life, and I believe Joe Soliz was one of mine.

My life forever changed.

So the point of this very personal story? Sometimes we need to experience the edge.  We also need to put ourselves in a place where we appreciate every small thing.  Then we have to give our troubles up to God, the Universe, or whoever you happen to pray to or believe in.  We think worrying will help, but it doesn’t.  It only begets more worrying.  Miracles lie in faith, gratitude and appreciation for this life.

So next time you’re in a tight spot, know there’s a way through… and one that’s better than you could ever design yourself.

And thank you Joe Soliz, Moon Martin… and quite a few other angels that have been there along my yellow brick road.

Love, Jude