Jimmy

As I was working on some of the older archives from my show biz days I came across an old tape that I hadn't heard for over 25 years. It was recorded on a different format; I had to make a conversion before I could hear it at the proper speed. When I did—there he was, his voice anyway—right in front of me like it was happening now for the first time. His impeccable sense of timing; his heartfelt emotion always at 100%.

The night he left the band he came over to my house and sobbed in my arms, wordlessly. Since he had been a kid he was always performing. But our scene was, like all struggling musicians, on the brink of chaos and self-destruction. He had to make a hard choice. He and his family moved out west and made a new life for themselves. It was a hard life, but I think he made the right choice.

Sometimes the greater glory is in the mundane.