Ep 23: Storytime Volume One

In today's episode, John shares five gig stories. No Top Ten list. Just a musician sharing some of the most memorable things that have happened to him along the way. 

One of the greatest things musicians can do is tell one another stories about their most memorable gigs. We encourage one another, remind each other why we do what we do, laugh together, and celebrate together. We learn from one another. We normalize the chaos that most definitely happens. We pass down our survival knowledge.

Best of all, we preserve moments that happened in space and time. The show happens live. The stories live with us. The best way to keep those stories fresh is to retell them.

Transcript

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You are listening to the Gig to Live Podcast. Welcome everyone. I'm John Foles and I'm a full-time working musician. This podcast is about building a music life that holds up over time. It's practical, enjoyable, sometimes uncomfortable, but it's always about helping you stay in the game and actually enjoy the life that you're building. We'll meet some wonderful working musicians from time to time. So whether you're just getting started or you've been doing this for years, you're in the right spot. This podcast is for you. Hey everyone, gather around. It's story time today. This episode is going to be a bit different. It's a palate cleanser of sorts. You know, when you've been munching on the same food for a while and you need something to reset your taste buds. We've been consuming top 10 lists and insights for the last 22 episodes. We've had some great interviews, conversations with guests, but today it's all about stories. I think one of the greatest things that musicians can do is tell one another stories about their most memorable gigs. I think when we do that, we encourage one another, we remind each other why we do what we do. We get to laugh together, we get to celebrate together, we get to learn from each other. And then we normalize the chaos that most definitely happens at gigs. So when you hear somebody else's story, you go, okay, that happened to somebody else too. It's not just me. We pass down our survival knowledge. And I think best of all, we preserve moments that happened in space and time. The shows happen live, the stories live with us, the best way to keep those stories fresh is to retell them. So every once in a while, I am going to have an episode here where I tell some of my most memorable gig stories. Some are going to be hilarious, some are going to be sad, some are going to be weird. All different kinds of stories. If you have any stories that you think would be good for me to share here, oh man, I'd love to hear them. I would like to do an episode or a few episodes in the future with your stories. You can email me at gig2livepodcast at gmail.com and I will share those stories. Well, I was in Portland, Oregon, and I got a lead to play music at a funeral. I didn't know the people, but if I remember correctly, it was one of those friend of a friend of a friend situations. And it was quite a few years ago. It was at the beginning of my music career. Now, you know what? I love playing funerals. I think that they are special moments. I think uh we have a rare opportunity to uh, you know, be hope and light and energy and uh, you know, help people through one of the most difficult times of their lives. So I was looking forward to playing at this funeral. The funeral was at an actual funeral home and it was open casket, which is not my favorite, but you know, whatever it happens. And the room I was going to be playing music in was directly attached to the main room, but it had this sort of pass-through window. It didn't have any glass, but it was like a little room to the side, and it had this cut out pass-through window. Uh, so I could see what was happening out there. They could see me, but but you know, I think they built this little room so the musician, uh the sideshow, you know, wasn't really distracting. It was just music was adding something to it without being uh, you know, a concert. So I was about ten feet from the casket, and I was separated from it by a wall with this pass-through space that was open. It was kind of a weird setup. The man who passed away was older, but he he wasn't old. His family was sitting in the front row, you know, that's usually the case, and the deceased man's wife and his daughter and the daughter's boyfriend were all in the front row. The daughter's boyfriend was wearing his army green service uniform. And I was asked to play a couple of old hymns. They also wanted more of a feature song that was really special to the family. And as the pastor finished his short message, I launched into the feature song. And when I was about at the end of it, the boyfriend in the army suit motioned to me uh, you know, to keep it going, keep it rolling. So I kept playing instrumentally. I didn't know what was going to happen. And then he began to speak in front of the crowd. He addressed the crowd, he addressed his girlfriend specifically, the daughter of the deceased, and he started saying all the reasons that he loves her. And she looked totally confused. I mean, it was her dad's funeral. She was crying and she was looking at him like, Well, what's going on? And then it happened. Standing in front of the open casket, he said, Before your father died, I asked his blessing for your hand in marriage. And then kneeling down in front of the dead man, he asked, Will you marry me? She was still crying, she looked so confused, I was absolutely confused, and she answered Yes. And he stood up and he put a ring on her finger. You know, cue the next song. I have a home beyond the river. My jaw was on the floor. It was the strangest proposal I have ever accompanied. I've played for proposals on the beach, uh beautiful s you know, situations near a river, in an old building, at a restaurant. But there is only one time in my life that I played for a marriage proposal ten feet from a dead man. I'm sure he meant well. You know, I'm sure he thought this is a beautiful way to honor my girlfriend, my bride to be, and to honor her father and his legacy. But if you're thinking about a marriage proposal and you're listening to this podcast, um just maybe think it through and say, is this the best possible scenario for this proposal? All right. The second story I want to share with you today is this. I got a gig lead through Gig Salad for a celebration in the mountains, and they said it would uh they'd like a a couple of musicians to do this. And so I bid the job for two musicians, and I got hired, and I grabbed my friend Stephen. We were both going to play acoustic guitar. I was gonna play rhythm, he was gonna play lead, I would sing, he'd do some harmonies, uh, and super fun. I was told to text the people when we got to their road because they said, uh, and I quote, they are hard to find. So we headed up into the mountains. It was up by Lake Tahoe, California, and we were, you know, off for an adventure. And I love going to new places and meeting new people. And every once in a while, though, I'm totally surprised, and this is one of those adventures. It was a bit hard to find even their road, to be honest. It was a dirt road, it had a chain across it. Uh, it was off of a service road that was off of a frontage road, and we had coordinates to get there. So, you know, we had the Google map, but we also they gave us exact coordinates. And when we got there, we texted them. I I was actually surprised we even had signal. They told us to wait, and they said someone would be down to unlock the gate. And about five minutes later, which is a long period of time when you're sitting at a locked gate in the mountains waiting for somebody to come get you. An ATV rode up to the chain, and a man got off the ATV and he came over to my truck and he said, Are you John? Well, yes, I am, and he said, Great. He had great energy. He said, Follow me, okay? And for the next five minutes with my truck in four-wheel drive, we took a drive into the mountains on kind of a you know rudded road with some, you know, little ditches going through it and water trickling through it here and there. It it was definitely off-grid. And my friend Steven looked at me at one point and he said, dude, if if I get murdered, tell my story well. And we we laughed. It it was a bit strange for sure. And we arrived at a beautiful home. It was super rustic, but it was gorgeous. And there were a bunch of ATVs parked everywhere, you know. There were uh, you know, four-wheel vehicles, um, you know, quads, and a few trucks, and people were roaming around drinking beer, laughing. A few of them clapped when they saw us drive up and, you know, shout, hey, the musicians are here. And a woman approached the truck as we got out and she introduced herself as the one who hired me, and she said, I bet you didn't expect this, did you? And she told me we would be playing on the front porch. It was an annual celebration, and her neighbors would all be arriving on their quads and their gaiters from miles around. And she told us that her husband, the man who greeted us at the gate, was a doctor, uh, a brain surgeon to be exact, and they built this home completely off the grid to get away for a few weeks at a time. And then she introduced me to her brother, who was the one who built the home, and he was a smarty pants, he was an engineer, he was something else. The home was run entirely on solar. He showed us uh the room where the battery center was. It was absolutely incredible. And we played for three hours, we had a couple of you know, 15-minute breaks. On one of those breaks, Steven went inside to use the restroom, and he came out and said, Dude, you have to see this. I followed him inside the home where the most beautiful bar that I have ever seen was built. It was wall to wall, it was floor to ceiling, there was rich wood uh carvings, there was a a pool table in the middle of the room, animal heads, you know, taxidermy hanging around the room. There was a a dartboard, a jukebox, amazing mood lighting, and every bottle of booze you could imagine was displayed on the bar. And my eye caught something. It was a Pappy Van Winkle 23-year-old family reserve bourbon. And I mean, to be honest, this bottle that costs multiple thousands of dollars was in an array of other super expensive bottles. And this one caught my eye, though. It stood out because I had heard about this and I've always wanted to try it. I've been fortunate to taste some pretty expensive whiskies over the years at someone else's expense. Uh, and there some of them are just indescribable, you know, just candy, liquid gold. But we got back to playing, and when the gig was over, the doctor asked if we would like to have a drink or two at the bar, and I said, I would love to. And he asked if I knew anything about whiskey, and I told him I did, I knew a little, and I used to do fundraisers where we would do scotch tastings, and I also love a good bourbon. And he asked, Well, what should I pour you? And I started eyeing the bottom shelf bourbons uh that I could buy for thirty bucks a bottle. I didn't let my eyes wander over to the expensive ones because I didn't want to be rude. He saw what I was doing though, and he said, Wait a minute, what bottle caught your eye? And I told him the papy. Which one? He asked. Um he had a few of them. I said, Well the the family reserve. And he smiled and he poured a glass for me of what amounted to more money than I would make at that gig that evening. Actually more money than we would make combined. And for the next hour, Stephen and I sipped on bourbon and we chatted with the doctor, and he gave us a very generous tip, and he thanked us for making the night memorable. His wife packed up ribs for us to take home to our families. We got in the truck to leave, and Stephen looked at me and he said, Does this happen to you all the time? No, Stephen. It doesn't. But then again, if I'm honest, the more I play music and the more opportunities that I say yes to, the more crazy experiences like that one I have. They don't happen every time, but when you do a large amount of gigs, they are bound to happen. Here's another. I was playing a wedding in the Midwest, and the bride and groom got married in a beautiful park. I was asked to play music 30 minutes prior to the ceremony, during the ceremony, and after the ceremony. The reception was gonna be somewhere else with a DJ, whatever. I played my 30 minutes prelude and the guests were seated, but no wedding party was moving around at all. And I kept playing. And fifteen minutes later, a bridesmaid walked up to me and said, The bride isn't here. Keep playing. And for the next hour I would keep playing songs, and the bridesmaid kept coming out and giving me that hand motion to keep playing. The crowd was totally restless, they were all confused, there was a lot of chatter, the voices were, you know, raising. I had no idea what was going on. Some people just left, but most people just sat around concerned, and a little over an hour went by, and the wedding party started to enter. All the bridesmaids were crying. The groom stood beside me, and he just looked at me and shook his head, and you could tell he had dried his tears as well. Then the bride walked down the aisle by herself, she was crying. The pastor officiated the ceremony, and you could hear her sniffles through the whole thing. And when it was all said and done, I asked one of the groomsmen, do you know what happened? Yeah. She said she didn't know if she wanted to get married. She wasn't going to show up, and then somebody went and picked her up. And I just remember thinking, Man, I hope that poor girl didn't force herself to get married. And it was probably the saddest wedding that I've ever played. It felt really awkward playing the upbeat song for them to walk out to with people cheering. And you know what? I hope they're doing well today. Just a couple of years ago, I got a lead on Gig Salad to play for a birthday party on the Sacramento River in a town that I had never been to. It was a small town, it was right on the riverbank, and maybe it had five buildings that weren't houses in this town. Most of the buildings were shut down, boarded up, you know, broken up windows. It was it was busted up. There was history there, but it was a ghost town. You know, there was an old country store, there was an old church, and the building that I was sent to was an old Masonic temple. It was a beautiful brick building, but it was showing signs of age. When I got inside the building, the woman who hired me greeted me with a hug. There were about 50 people there. Everybody was in a fantastic mood. She showed me where to set up and she asked if I needed anything. She got me water and asked if I wanted a tour. And I most definitely wanted a tour because where I set up my sound system was in a room full of old restored cars and motorcycles and boats and antiques like I had never seen in a private collection before. And when I say, you know, restored cars, there were probably six. Motorcycles, probably a dozen. Boats, there were at least three. And she gave me a tour of the entire building that was complete with a beautifully maintained lodge room. That's the space that's, you know, it's highly symbolic where the Freemasons do all of their rituals and their meetings, their secret stuff, their grand poo-ba stuff. And the chairs looked like they came from a castle in Narnia. And the paintings on the walls were gorgeous. And some of them were eerie, but in a cool, kind of a spooky way. And the party, um, I learned, was for the woman's father who had passed away. He bought the old building as a place for his man cave, the whole building for his man cave, and he would often spend time there tinkering on his collectibles. And every year the family gathered there to celebrate him and all the friends and family, you know, neighbors, everybody came. For three hours, I played a show as the people celebrated with all of this, you know, this gentleman's favorite songs. And when it was over, the man's son, his adult son, approached me and said, You want to go for a ride? In what? I asked. And then he led me to an early 1900s Harley Davidson with a sidecar. It was Army Green. He handed me a helmet and he said, Hop in. And the son took me for a ride on the banks of the Sacramento River for the next 30 minutes. My beard was blowing everywhere, and I had a stupid grin on my face. We got back to that building and I thanked him. I was giddy, and this guy was happy to make me happy. I could just tell. Sometimes I can't believe the places I get to see. All right, the last one for today. And this is probably one of my favorite stories, period, one of my favorite life stories. I was in the town of Arad, Romania, and I was with a group who were rebuilding a bunch of playgrounds and parks. Uh, they were working in cooperation with the U.S. government. My job was to play music at night for all the workers and the teenagers who went on the service trip, as well as uh the auditorium I played in. They were going to open it up to the city and invite whoever wanted to come. Uh the town was really excited that the Americans showed up because apparently I learned uh that uh after the war uh the U.S. had made a promise to Arad that they would come back and rebuild, and they failed uh to follow through on that promise. And so the newspapers when we got there uh had a headline about the Americans are finally here. It was a crazy thing to be a part of. Uh Arad is an important city in Romania. I didn't know much about it until I got there. One of the first music conservatories in all of Europe is in Irad. One of the earliest teachers' colleges in Europe is there in Irad. Uh it used to be Hungary before World War I, and Hungary's first car factory was there when the borders were different before the war. There are two universities there, and I learned it's the seat of the Romanian Orthodox Archbishop. Ha, who would have thought? So the city has so much history. Cool buildings. And it's also a significant wine region in Europe, by the way. So here I am in this foreign country. I can't believe I get to do this. I get to travel the world and play music. And one of the leaders of the trip who worked with the youth said that he had an opportunity to go with a gentleman who was doing prison reform with a commandant of the Romanian prison system. And according to them at that time, uh the prison system was such that very low-level crime prisoners were being housed with high-level crime prisoners. And they were trying to change that. And he asked if I would like to go with him. And I said, I would love to tag along. So we headed to the Commandant's residence, which happened to be in the middle of the prison. So that was a trip. High walls, barbed wire, lots of guns, lots of security, lots of, you know, pass points through the prison. You can imagine the scene. And the residence, though, once we got there, wow, it was a different world. It was beautiful. And he had quite a few servants, and they were wearing white gloves inside the residence. I'm not making this up. And we were going to share a meal together. So the man in charge told us, you have to do exactly what I do. There are customs and expectations. So just follow my lead. And we said absolutely no problem, not knowing what we were getting ourselves into. And we were seated at a large table and we were greeted by the commandant who did not speak English, by the way. Why would he have to? Americans that travel abroad are so full of themselves to think anything should be different. You know, who are we? So he had an interpreter, and we were served some appetizers. They filled our glasses with wine, and we were told the wine was from his own private collection. All right, time out. This is where I need to pause and give you a little backstory. At this time, I was a student at a private Christian university, even though I was an adult with children. I had gone back to school in my late 20s. And the university had a contract where we had to sign, and it was kind of a leftover from a more conservative era of the college, but it was in there nonetheless, and it stated we could not drink alcohol while we were students. So the only time we could, the only time we could have alcohol is if we were in a foreign country, check, and it would be rude to abstain. Check, check. I was in the clear. But I hadn't touched alcohol for four years, and I had an empty stomach. Now, back to our story. They poured the wine, and the man in charge lifted his glass and he looked at us and he nodded his head and he began to drink the wine like it was water, like he was the thirstiest man on the planet, chugging it back. So we followed his lead. And when the glasses were empty, the servants filled our glasses again, and he looked at us and he winked and he smiled and he whispered and he said, This one we sip. I was grateful. We had an amazing meal. It was a white, creamy sauce covering chicken, there were potatoes, there were peas, and then they brought dessert, and I was glad that I had all of this food on my belly at this time to absorb some of the wine that really that stuff hit my head in the first five minutes we were there. So with the dessert, we learned that we would be sharing some of the commandant's very own plum vodka that was made nearby. And they poured us a glass. And when I say a glass, I mean it was at least four ounces. And you guessed it, we had to chug the first one, and I could see waves coming off of it, like gasoline. And then they they poured another, and we got to sip that one. Well, when we left the building, the ground was at a slightly different angle than it was when I went in. And this lightweight here was walking on this 45-degree pavement all the way to the van, and I barely stumbled into the van and I shut my eyes. The entire day, back where I was staying after lunch, I was sick as a dog. And then that night rolled around and it was concert time. After puking my guts out, I played for a packed house in this city full of locals. I wasn't drunk for the show, but you know, I mean, it was lingering. I was just a bit exhausted, to tell you the truth. And thank God it was an amazing show. It was an amazing experience that day. Lots of cheering, lots of hand clapping, lots of uh foot stomping. Now, just when you thought the story couldn't get any better, fast forward 12 years later, I'm in Chicago and I'm speaking at a conference designed for creatives. And I was taking a taxi in the pouring rain to get to my session. Uh you know, I had walked every other day for other sessions I was speaking at, but you know, pouring down rain. So I get in this taxi, and I recognized the accent of my taxicab driver. He was about 30 years old and he was talking to someone on the phone and we were driving. When he got off the phone, I took a shot and I asked him, excuse me, is your accent Romanian? And he chuckled and he answered and he said, Yes, it is. Uh, have you been there? And I told him that I visited Romania about 12 or so years earlier. I told him I was in the city of Arad, and he said, That's amazing. I'm from Arad. I'm over here making some money so I can bring my family to the States. My family's still in Arad. And he asked, Why did you visit there? I told him I was a musician and I traveled there to play music while the group I was with was doing some rebuilding of playgrounds and parks in the area, and I told him I played music at night. And he pulled over the curb at our destination. He turned around, he looked at me, and he said, You played in the auditorium. You played guitar and you sang. I was there. He said, We heard there was a group of Americans in town, and me and my friends went to see the music. I was just a teenager, and I almost started to cry. And he shook my hand and he said, Thank you. Thank you so much. I hope that you have enjoyed today's stories. Keep telling your stories. Until next time, stay creative, stay after it, stay hired. Let me love. Let me love.