I am Not an Asian Tourist

Back in the day, I was almost a rock star.

Okay, I was never even close to being a rock star. But I liked the idea of being one, so I got a bass guitar when I was 15.
It was a super cheap POS from Montgomery Ward that my Mom -even though we were broke- bought for me. God how I loved that guitar (and my Mom for buying it for me.)
Not only was it super cool with all the chicks that I was a bass player, but it gave me something to do (although it didn't keep me out of trouble by any stretch of the imagination.)
I would play that thing for hours on end. Before school, after school and any chance I could get. I can't even count the number of times I woke up in the middle of the night with it laying next to me in bed and just started playing until I fell asleep again.
I am blessed enough to have a good ear and never needed to take lessons. I could just listen to songs and know how to play em, which is more than a lot of people can say.

So anyway, I got damn good at the bass, started playing in bands and did the whole band thing for years until I got tired of it.

Unlike when Mom used to say "Don't sit so close to the TV, you'll ruin your eyes", her telling me to "turn that damn music down before you go deaf" was actually pretty spot on, as I really did ruin my ears.

So if sometime you're talking to me, and I'm just kind of standing there with a glazed look in my eyes, nodding my head, smiling and saying "yeah." like an Asian tourist, it's not because I agree with you or think what you said is funny. It's because I was in a rock band in the 80's and can't hear a damn word you're saying.

  I sold my bass a few years ago and hadn't played it for probably a year or two before that. I still strum my old acoustic guitar every once in a while, and maybe -if you're lucky- I'll sing you a song sometime, but for the most part, outside of a million great memories and a bad case of tinnitus, that rock star dream is far behind me, and I'm okay with that.


I'm sorry, what was that?