I'm such a friggin idiot!

So we got invited to a party at a friends house yesterday. "I hope you guys can make it, there's some people we'd like you to meet". Sounds great, but of course we'll make it, you are our friends, absolutely we'll be there. We were supposed to be there around 2pm, so of course as we pulled in at 4:40 pm! For once at least it was for legit reasons. The lil woman was trying to put a real estate deal together and these days in real estate, you take nothing for granted, when you line something up in your sights, YOU PULL THE TRIGGER! Although we haven't known these particular friends that long, really only about 2 years I'd say, they quickly established themselves atop the list of amazing people in our lives. We had similar lifestyles, hobbies, mutual friends and both Diane and Patti suffer with MS which will bond you in an instant! Now we have been to a few parties over there to say the least. As a matter of fact last year around this same time, we had a bunch of friends from Jersey come out to stay with us and it was AZ Bike Week as well. We were not done renovating the house yet and the pool was empty and the house was barely painted. Patti and Daryl, her husband said "hell man, just take over our house, seriously, use our house"! After a lil bit of arm twisting that is just what we did. They gave us their "Palace" to entertain our friends for a week, truly first class on their part! Something was different about this party though. We walked through the door and the house was packed! Long haired, skinny jeans and a Shit Ton of long chains of every length and style, this was not your typical biker shindig, these were all "rockers", what the fuck were they doing here? As I walked through the packed house and it's a BIG FUCKIN HOUSE, I didn't recognize one person, not one single person. Hell, it took a few minutes to even find our friends. Usually, I am the most screwed up looking person to walk through these doors and on this day, I looked like a damn candidate for congress compared to these maniacs! We finally found our friends, grabbed some bbq and sat down to bullshit. Slowly I began to recognize a face here and there but 99%, I still had no idea who they were. Where I come from, when you are at a party and there is a guitar in the corner, inevitably, someone will pick it up and start playing and then someone else will join in with anything they can slap away on and then all our drunk asses sing! It's just the way it's always been. Since moving out to AZ, I have not been around that. Hell, I didn't even realize how much I missed it. I began in the entertainment industry when I was 17 and too young to even open my own company. Thanks Mom for helping to get that off the ground. Anyway, being the social butterfly that I am, I just started to bullshit and in typical Jack Shit fashion, just started making people laugh. One of the first things that I noticed was that everyone had a heavy accent. I don't mean a Boston accent or Jersey accent, I mean like Scottish accents and such. How peculiar I thought. Every now and again, the cd in the player got changed and each was better than the last and as it turns out, each was one or another of the guests.... a short time later a few more party goers arrived. They cracked a few beers and just hung out. We were off in the office when I heard the guitar being played like I had not heard one being played in a very long time. I peaked out of the office and noticed that all of the party goers were now in the living room, hummmm, my interest was peaked! Off in the corner, someone had picked up the guitar, another had picked up a shitty little bongo drum and this big 6'4" sum bitch sat down on a dining room chair and began to sing. HOLY SHIT DID HE BEGIN TO SING! I found a luxurious place to sit on the couch and pulled my girl down next to me and could not help but to become mesmerized. I've been around music my entire life but there was something sort of special happening in this living room, this Saturday night! A song would be played and then we would shout at them like a juke box, play this, play that and they laughed and took it with a grain of salt! Hell, I was now ready to join in, I saw a pair of maracas in the office, I'll play percussion too! At least back home that is how it went, find something that made noise and join in. I was so blown away by the playing that I never moved an inch from the couch..... after a bit, they stopped and the party went back to where it was earlier. At some point I was in the kitchen with the big fucker that was singing and we began talking. He spoke of playing rugby and shit and asked what it was that I did, so I told him and he was captivated. This went on and off for a while. What a super friendly guy! I looked over by the pool table and my girl was sitting on the couch talking with the 20 year old "kid" who was playing the guitar and it was like any normal party. We took turns swigging away on not one but two bottles of Gentleman Jack and chasing it with Jack and Coke for me and beer for them. I went outside to smoke and hang out with the outside crowd when these crazy bastards stripped naked and jumped in to the pool. If you saw my post last night, the video post, you will remember the SNOW ON THE MOUNTAINS! It was freezing out and a wicked desert wind was blowing and these nuts were now naked and dove in to the pool with the bottle of Jack! Unacceptable, party foul, get that bottle back before something happens to it!!! From the pool to the hot tub, to back in the house, it was truly a party! Not long after the number of people at the party had increased greatly and once again, the living room was packed full and the same three guys were in the very same positions yet again. That was cool with me, these guys rocked. But why had no one else joined in. The house was obviously chock full of fantastic musicians? It was later made clear to me why. I asked and the answers were the same from each, "I've learned long ago, when you are in the presence of greatness, you do not add mediocrity to it". Mediocre? I just heard your cd and if that is mediocre than I know nothing about music! They played another 3 or 4 songs, everyone went nuts and I was blown away. So of course stupid ass me suggests to them that since they seem to play so well together, perhaps they should look in to doing it all the time. The singer Tom laughed and said "Jack Shit, you may be on to something" and cracked a big ass smile! WEll I would not have said it if I didn't mean it and it weren't true. As they finished their last song and the cheering quited down I turned to my friend who was standing next to me and looked at him with that "holy shit man" look and it was returned with an agreeable nod. I was not crazy, I was hearing it as he was. I know music, at least I know what sounds good, my friend that I turned to knew music well too, he use to be in a band called LA Guns. He then said to me, "next big thing". What do you mean next big thing? Aren't these guys just party guests who picked up a guitar? Here is where the title of this blog comes in, the answer, NO! These guys had those funny accents because they were from Wales! They had just recently signed a development deal with Allen Niven, the manager of Guns and Roses, when Guns mattered to anyone! The guitar player, the 20 year old "kid" I spoke of is being called and allow me to quote from a famous music writer from the UK, Mick Walls, "the greatest up and coming guitar player of the century", the kids name is Chris Buck. Mick Walls who typically slaughters any and every band that comes before him has written "this is the most powerful trio to come out of the UK since Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience". This is the UK's version I guess of say, Rolling Stone Magazine. What the fuck are these guys doing sitting in the living room? THE NEXT BIG THING is pretty much a certainty for these guys. The name of the band is the Tom Hollister Trio or more commonly known as TH3 and they are going to be HUGE! Boy am I glad that after hearing that first song, I quickly built a tripod out of plastic cups, took my shitty little camera and hit record, I had to capture this impromptu living room jam session. I am such a friggin idiot, here I am thinking I just discovered these laid back "living room musicians"..... what a tool I am! It just so happens that I decided to turn my camera on and record what is their single Tied Up In Blue and damn is it good! So check it out, it's right here beneath this. Pretty damn good huh? A hokey bongo, a guitar that was not his, no bass at all and by comparison shitty American beer than what they are use to and sitting in a living room and this is what you get! You can see now why I suggested that they should seriously consider playing together again, duh! Since I had been drinking so much Jack Daniels I hadn't really paid much attention to what my friend said other than NEXT BIG THING. The quotes I posted above, I only learned of after arriving home last night. I had found out that they were a band, obviously before leaving but knew nothing more until I got home and typed in to Google! You would never imagine that these guys are on the path to super stardom by how laid back, approachable and friendly they were. I had been hanging out with the singer all night long. I had told him that each and every time that I am handed a mic, the first words out of my mouth are about never forgetting the soldiers who have served us both past and present. How I try to do anything that I can to support our troops. Well this we had in common and it struck a chord with him. He rolled up his sleeve and showed me a bracelet that he wore, help for heroes. Help for heroes is an organization similar to ones we have here in America, it's about helping those who do manage to make it home, but don't come home the same as they left. http://www.helpforheroes.org.uk/ go check it out. So now, we are having this talk and I can see his band mates looking over at him like, dude, what the fuck are you doing, you are talking to this guy all night? He called the other guys over, introduced me to them and said, this is Jack Shit, he is a comedian and a writer and one funny mother fucker. With that, he pulled his bracelet off and put it on my wrist and that is where it stayed, it's mine now! What really got the party started was obviously another GREAT AMERICAN, Jack Daniels! What kept the conversation going were my silly I Know Jack Shit shirts! They were so blown away that they each wanted one and suggested that they could take them wherever they travel and take pics. I started laughing and said great idea, but it's not yours! I busted out the laptop and opened up the file with what now contains probably close to 400 photos of people around the world doing just that. They insisted that we hook up today so that they could pick up their shirts, give me their own shirts and cd and GO SHOPPING! I guess we have better "rockstar" clothes here in America than they do in the UK and you know what? These guys are going to need it. If memory serves me correctly, they are being produced by Stevie Winwood's crew and engineered by the same cat that has done some of the Rolling Stones' albums. Last night was an amazingly good time, surrounded by warm, friendly and thank God, CREATIVE PEOPLE all around and I loved it. There is so much energy around creative people that I can not help but to suck it up like a dry sponge. Last night took me back to some of the happiest times of my life when memories were made by someone just picking up a guitar or harmonica and playing. My life has always been full throttle, a seemingly out of control roller coaster that at times broken loose from the rails, but somehow I have not only managed to survive, but to thrive and it is because I am lucky enough to be surrounded by exceptional friends and I cherish each and every single one of you! Sorry this is such a long post, but fuck it, it's Sunday, what else do you have to do but sit on the net and check out posts, watch videos and if you are lucky, have enough alone time to rub one out! I hope you enjoyed this one! One day I will have to ask how this entire evening even came about? Till we see each other on the road, Keep the wind in your face, Tits in your back and The Man off your ass! Your friend, Jack Shit