Step Inside...Walk this way

We all have that moment in life where we knew what direction our life was going to take. Or at least what direction we wanted it to take. That moment that you can look back on and say it pretty much defined you for the rest of your life. It may be the birth of a child, the death of a loved one or perhaps a near death experience of your own. Contemplating ones mortality seems to be a catalyst for things such as this. For me, it was watching Rick Savage ascend three stairs in slow motion at the tender age of 7. Yes the bass player for Def Leppard changed my life. Perhaps it was the director of the "Pour Some Sugar On Me" video, Wayne Isham who deserves the credit but I am just splitting hairs now. They can argue that between them. But yes it was that very moment that pretty much defines the rest of my life.

Lucky for me this was not exactly my first taste of popular music. I had been raised on a mix of the Rolling Stones, Barry Manilow and selected hits from 1979-1981. Pop culture had an early impact on my life and I was aware of a bigger world because of it earlier than most of my peers. While kids I knew were listening to "Puff The Magic Dragon", I was rocking to "Too Much Blood" by the Stones. (It should be noted that I don't believe I ever knew anyone who listened to "Puff", but it has been my go-to children's song for almost 2 decades so go with it). Other kids' parents were a bit scared of me perhaps. But I liked it. It did not hurt to have an older sister who was just old enough to be getting into that world. I bypassed Disney pretty quick for Revenge Of The Nerds.

Back to Def Leppard. If you haven't seen the "Pour Some Sugar On Me" video, go check it out now. Youtube, dvds, or vhs. Whatever it takes, go watch it. There ya go. Life changing wasn't it? Wait, you did watch the Live video and not that terrible one where they are in a house being destroyed right? Whew, had to be sure. Ok well think if your seven year old self had seen this. It just looks...big. I don't know what it was, aside from the fact that it is the greatest 4 minutes and 57 seconds in rock n roll history, but this video changed my life. I had already begun growing my hair long due to seeing Davy Jones on The Monkees reunion tour, but this solidified the fact that I would have awesome long hair.

Funny thing about that Davy Jones look. You have to find pics of the man circa 1986/87. Much like most of the kids of the 80s, i discovered the Monkees through MTV and Nickelodeon picking up the show. That lead to a reunion tour and a killer album called Pool It as well as a great new compilation called Then and Now: The Best Of The Monkees. You have to understand while reading this that I am a Rock N Roll encyclopedia and I have no choice but to share my overwhelming wealth of knowledge. Anyway, Davy put out a biography. I brought this bio to school one day in 1st grade for Show and Tell and let my class know that I would be growing my hair long like Davy had. They kind of laughed and my teacher scoffed and wished me luck. Little did they know. My mission remained the same though my goal was changed. I no longer wanted to be 40 year old englishman. I now wanted to be a 28 year old englishman. Big difference.

So from that moment on I was a Def Leppard addict and all I wanted to do was be part of that world. No the Leppard world, but that scene. That life. I wanted to be playing to screaming fans. Or I wanted to be one of the screaming fans. This was eye opening and as I said, life changing. This was everything I could ever hope to be a part of. And while people grow out of that, I cant say I ever have. I never saw a reason to.

I have been chasing that video all my life. Honestly even before that momentous occasion, I wanted to be a singer. Blame Barry Manilow or Mick Jagger, but its what I wanted to be. The genre just changed. I spent probably hundreds of hours in my basement pretending to be my favorite rockers. I think the big 3 I wanted to be were Joe Elliott of Def Leppard(the reason I still hold a mic in my left hand to this day), Steven Tyler of Aerosmith(scarves and all) and James Hetfield of Metallica. Yeah, that is an odd memory there. I distinctly remember having a fake guitar slung way too low as I sang Metallica songs into a flashlight mounted on a pool cue. I have never even been a big Metallica fan. I always say I like about 1 song per album. Yet back then, and up to about 1994, Metallica was the coolest. James Hetfield had the coolest stance when playing and singing. Who wouldn't want to be him. This may be hard for the younger kids who know James as short haired and kinda whiny thanks to the movie Some Kind Of Monster. But I always wanted to be a singer. So what did I do?

I asked for drums. Why? I would love to say I know why but I don't. I think drums were cool in their own way. You got to make a lot of noise. Maybe there was a confidence thing when it came to my singing abilities. I don't know but I got drums for Christmas one year. I was probably 5 or 6. Maybe I wanted to be Mickey Dolenz of the Monkees. I sure did not want to be Charlie Watts. And I played them. But once I saw that Leppard video, I knew I wanted to be the singer of a killer rock band. I wanted to wear ripped to shreds jeans. I wanted to have fun on and below the stage. I wanted to sing songs like "Pour Some Sugar On Me" and "Rag Doll".

I remember vividly the first time I saw Leppard's next video, "Love Bites". I was sitting in my father's den with my sister. His den was one of 2 rooms in the house that had cable. We were flipping through the channels and the video was on. So there was the band I saw on this huge stage looking bigger than life in the darkness singing into studio microphones. It was so shadowy that we spent the next few minutes debating if this was even the same band we had already come to truly enjoy via one song. I argued that I believed it to be them as a one armed drummer is kinda hard to miss. In my sister's defense, the mirror images in the video actually do make it a bit rough to figure that part out. But at the end of the video, my argument prevailed as it was revealed that this was indeed Def Leppard. It wasn't long until they were cemented as my favorite band. And they have never let me down.

Of course we all know what happened to the music world since 1988. But with my band still packing arenas when many of their contemporaries can barely pack a club, I know that little 7 year old me picked the right pony. I can't help but be proud.

This decision and path in life was not without its pitfalls. In the formative years that are 7-12, I took a lot of crap for my long hair. Lets face it, the pains of individuality don't start happening until middle school. There are no goth 9 year olds. So for me to be walking around with my fantastic mullet and my G-Whiz(one of those mall stores pre-Spencers) Def Leppard Hysteria shirt, I was a target. Not too badly. But every now and then someone would say I looked like a girl or a teacher would be a little scared of my rock T-shirts. Lucky for me by 3rd grade, I had an ally. Jerry. He had a rat tail haircut and a Def Leppard shirt of his own. No one picked on Jerry as he was a big kid. Not fat but not muscular either. Me, I was scrawny and short. And my hair was longer. But Jerry and I were our own club. We weren't best of friends, but when surrounded by kids who were wearing cartoon characters on their Osh Kosh B'Gosh overalls, we were a solid unit who were aware of a much bigger world than the others in our school.

Jerry was actually the first person to inform me of a pivotal piece of sad news. Steve Clark, the guitarist of Def Leppard, had died. I was waiting outside my homeroom class in 4th grade. Jerry came up to me and asked if I had heard. I had not but quite honestly I really didn't believe him. Steve, to me at the time, was the least interesting Leppard member. How could he be dead? I just figured Jerry had gotten a bad piece of info. Its actually sad that in the world of the internet, I don't remember how we heard rumors back then. When I got home, my mother asked me if I had heard who died. I said "Steve from Def Leppard?" And I had my confirmation. at 9 years old I am not sure I knew how to process this. I think i just kind blinked and it was over. Something though told me this was significant to me. I cut his obituary out of my local paper. I still have that piece of newsprint. Its in plastic. Honestly, the loss of Steve as a fan has never been something I think too much about. I don't often wonder what the band would sound like with him. I do sometimes wonder what he would look like standing on stage where Vivian Campbell has stood since 1992. But the more I learned about Steve perhaps he was one of those that just wasn't supposed to grow old. I don't claim to have known the man. It was just that first death experience of one of my early heroes.

Yes, MTV changed the world. And they changed the dreams and life path of a 7 year old boy in Connecticut. Amazing isn't it? It is kinda sad that they don't play videos anymore and that the videos they do play are garbage. Sorry, but Coldplay and Fallout Boy videos won't have the same effect. There are no new rock idols. Perhaps it was the absence of any true Rock Gods later in life that prompted this 7 year old to create one later in life. All still in an attempt to chase that video and that moment that forever changed me.

Audio version with bonus insights below:
Step%20Inside...Walk%20this%20way.mp3