Fuck Plan B!

I got up this morning after a good night's sleep and realized that it was gonna be a....

Great Heavy Metal Day!

I recently saw a documentary on Pantera and its demise mainly attributed to lead singer Phil Anselmo's drug addiction which was mainly attributed to chronic pain caused by a messed up vertebra in his back caused by jumping all over and off the stage during their performances.

Anyway.... the documentary went on to talk about the forming of Damageplan after that which consisted of Dimebag Darrell Abbot on guitar and his brother, Vinnie, on drums and Pat Lachman on vocals and Bob Zilla on bass.

Tragically, Dimebag Darrell Abbot, who was purported as one of the greatest guitarists of all time - his name used in the same sentence with Eddie Van Halen and Jimi Hendrix and others - was killed by a gunman while performing on stage with Damageplan on December 8, 2004.

I'm not even sure where I'm going with this, except to say that there seems to be a common characteristic of all great musicians.... and that is...

That's all they want to do.... That is their passion.... Music is their Life and their reason for Living!

I was thinking about that as I turned on my Comcast Music Choice Rock channel this morning and saw this quote from Jonny Hawkins of Nothing More.

"Having a Plan B is a recipe for failure."

And then this one from Joshua Moore of We Came as Romans.

"If I weren't a musician, I'd be taking the necessary steps to make it as a musician."

Speaking as a person who historically has always had a Plan B and a Plan C and a contingency plan for nearly every significant Life Move, I've been forced to recently face the fallacy of such an approach or at least place some value on the concept of just having a Plan A.

And perhaps Jonny Hawkins has a point.... because having only one plan does force you to commit everything to its success.

It kinda reminds me of a paraphrasing of an old saying.

"Don't put all your eggs in one basket....

But if you do.... then watch that basket very closely".

I think sometimes we get so caught up in thinking about what can go wrong that we end up living in a....

Or the music of our life becomes a....

These great performers, these standouts, these icons of music did nothing but pursue a single minded obsession with making their kind of music - 

From the beginning when this type of music was just beginning and sustained it through Glam Metal, Grunge, Nu Metal and are still going strong today with all the Techno and "Happy" music of this generation.

As I have documented several times, this huge Left Turn in Life that my move to Santa Fe represents was kind of a Leap of Faith.....No Backup Plan.... I really didn't know if it was gonna work..... or if I could sustain it.... and I still don't.

But I can tell you that I followed my desire and passion.... and I think it was the right thing to do.

There isn't a Plan B for me.... this is it.

There are risks to having only Plan A but if you are willing to accept those risks and follow the dream that a single-minded plan represents, then the rewards can be pretty life fulfilling.

Ask me....

I've been there and done that and am living the dream.