Setting the stage

The 80's begin"
. My first day at the "P" home was an eye opener. First off they got these guys up at 5:30 in the morning!! ouch..There was this old nurse who worked the grave yard shift and the guys who hadn't done a number 2 in the last three days would get a visit at around 3 am from "Nurse Nasty Fingers"..on the day I started she had made the rounds..sure enough at about the time I came on it was "Bombs over Tokyo" I showed up and met Ron the day guy..Tall, slender, quiet, Catholic man who would train me and who in his own quiet way teach me a lot about a "servants life". We walk into the first room and this poor guy in laying in bed covered from chin to shin in you know what...I look at Ron and go..."Are they all like this"...he goes 'No you're just lucky"...story of my life....

Just prior to all this there were a couple of things going on. There were two magazines that I never missed an issue "Guitar Player" and "Contemporary Christian Music".The first kept me up on all things guitar and the other would keep me inspired in the world of Christian Music. More about these later. I came across a book and then a cassette series by a really great bible teacher named Bob Mumford. I felt myself drawn to intensely study the first few books of the bible mostly the story of Moses and the Children Of Israel their delivery from Egypt crossing the Red Sea,Mount Sinai the 10 Commandment the Wilderness and finally crossing Jordan and taking the Promised Land. Mumford's book had less to do with "temptation" and a lot more to do with trials and how God works in our life thru adversity and pain. Bob would introduce to me a doctrine that I would fully embrace and would give me insight in the years to follow that help me "Hold fast my profession of faith"in the face of full frontal adversity and defeat Let me clarify There were two teachers that would make a major impact and a life long impression. Bob Mumford taught me how to endure and Kenneth Hagin taught me how to believe. Here are Mumfords laws,"the Law of the "Four P's" simple but very profound "PROMISE"..God told the Jews.."I will give you homes you did not build..vines you did not plant and you will eat the fat of the land ,I send you to a good land that flows with milk and honey", "PRINCIPLE the 10 Commandments. " You Shall have no other God's Before me".then comes...the hard part...ok...milk and honey...vineyards...leeks and garlic...homes I didn't build...the "PROBLEM".....between Egypt and the promised land was this little trek....called "THE WILDERNESS"....hot dry ...miserable...with not much to eat(manna) or drink(bitter water)....and a lot of complaining.....and because of all the complaining...what started out as a week and a few days...turned into 40....YEARS...and finally after God raised up a whole new generation of warriors...from a group of grumbling slaves...the "PROVISION"...Promise,Principle,Problem,and Provision.....30 years later I would come across a preacher who was teaching something very close to this...this time using the life of Joseph(you know "coat of many colors guy)some one like the early Jews I could SO SO relate to...Graham Cook a pastor from Scotland who pastors out of southern California..his was "the Laws of the four D's.....Declaration,Distress,Development, Demonstration!..frankly in time I would live all of these...and in some way still looking for the promised land....but this doctrine would prepare me to know..and get ready for the wilderness and fully realize that the choices and attitude you adopt and embrace while walking the hot sand..sweating...living on manna..is the difference between a Holy Solider or Bleached Bones..and it amazed me how many believers never "got this" Pastor Graham said if you were ever going to be a trail blazer or innovator...the four D's were unavoidable...having been there...I whole heartedly agree!

The 70's had ended that decade had started with a bitter downer....the loss of Jimi,Janis,Jim Morrison Momma Cass and Dwayne Allman...along with Bruce Lee...out of the death of the "love Generation" and our heros ...came in full bloom..".the Jesus People" and the birth of "Christian Music and my salvation baptism and call the 70's would see the death of Keith Moon,Jon Bonnham..the end of Led Zep the rise of Punk,The Ramones...the Clash...and ...God save the Queen.......DISCO.....so when the 80's arrived it was like What will THIS BRING?.....the 80's for me would be an amazing decade....with equal parts....joy and heartache,,,,it seems God always hands me a plate with equal piles of joy and pain on it and here is some wonderful JOY along with a cup full glass...sorry it can't be helped......waiter...there seems to be something dead and smelly in soup!!! This would be the greatest period of true spiritual growth for me. The hotter the fire the purer the gold. I have always looked at what ever hard time as something God was trying to teach me.
1980.....I'm playing a lot of guitar....and learning to be a caregiver Frankly I grew to truly love my job and the old guys and gals I cared for. I found myself there many times late at night before I'd leave to go home. if someone was having a bad day....I'd go pray for them.....
There began a growing desire...this NEED......as I continued to develop as a musician and guitar player I began to really thirst to understand music. To study it. Learn about harmony and theory, learn scales. At the time I had chops..I was becoming a serious "shredder"(before I even knew what "shred"ment) but I couldn't tell you what I was doing I hardly knew what the names of the chords were..so I was beginning to see a wall approaching.

I had come across an article in "Guitar player" about this school that had just started in Hollywood California. "The Guitar Institute of Technology" GIT for short. My first impression was "Wow would I love to study there"!!!..then my second..."I'm probably not good enough". There again, me not giving myself credit..for my playing...and both my intelligence and talent.

By 1982 I had been married,divorced and remarried. My first ex,would produce a child that she would tell me was not mine. It was hard, to say the least and, I felt so quilty. But I'm usually one to take to heart lessons to be learned by mistakes made. I came before God truly sorry and deeply committed this to him. I prayed for His Total will. So on the day that I went to see this baby for the first time I was nervous,scared but prepared to accept the responsibility of my actions. Pay the price monthly. When my ex said she wasn't mine. I was far to young...to poor and to fragile to fight..I took their word for it..with a clear conscience..I had asked for God's will in the face of doing something very wrong..it was a turning point...rather than run away...move back to Monterey,,,where my Dad had offered me both a place to sleep and a trade to learn...I decided to stay and face the music. But I remember driving away that day thinking.."Yea they are probably lying to me..but really they got money,a stable home..that little girl will grow up fine....and someday,,,,someday...she will want to know who her Father really is. I fully committed her to God's care..and 26 years later we would meet..and I would see fully how God and kept the precious gift I had committed to Him in His care and protection. She became an award winnng graphic artist...a gift she probably inherited from me...a fine singer..married with her own home and a happy life...it was wonderful to see her connect with my other two daughters she being the only girl in her family growing up. And it was so funny to see how much she acted like an Olsen. When I did finally meet her what really floored me was she was the spitting image of my mother. Amazing. She is an amazing kid...a testament to God's amazing 'longveiw"of our lives...and face it....with God...things "work out fine".

After getting married I decided what was needed was time off. We were young and stupidly in love..So I backed away from playing live. really there wasn't much out there to do at the time. The Sonshine Inn had closed and frankly my church wasn't really offering me much support. So I just worked at the P home played guitar at home and spent the evening as a young married guy. Occasionally I would experience those "Inside outside" moments...when I would be minding my own business and God would come along and say'Get ready.....something is coming"...."My hand is on you for a task to perform"...I'm would...ooh...ok WHAT??...then....poof...silence...irritating at times...

The church at this time was conducting a series of special services. The had brought up a special speaker from a large church in Canada. (He and Pastor Jack I think had gone to school together years before.)
They called these "Presbytery" meetings. What they would do was alter both the lives of those who attended and the direction of the church. For me I just showed up hoping to stay out of the way and watch what happened. The Pastor that they had brought up had the "Gift of Prophecy"...one of that "Five Fold Ministry" I mentioned earlier. So having never heard of a meeting called a "Presbytery" but being somewhat aware of the Five Fold...we went...and...my life once again changed forever..the meeting started with really good worship. I could tell something was in the air...as we began to pray and worship Jack would walk around the room and "as he felt led"pick singles..couples out of the crowd. It was uncanny how "on the money" this guy was..considering that there was no way he could know or even remember things about these folks he had a word for.

I'm standing there trying to be invisible when I open my eyes and see Jack pointing at the two of us. I nervously walk forward frankly half scared out of my wits. He and Jack begin to pray and lay their hands on us ..and I here the Prophet say..." You have been upset of late by those who you believe have hurt and betrayed you"...as those word began to ripple off this guys lips...I stood..frozen...could not even twitch...every fiber of my being was "wide awake and at full attention"...something very important was happening..."But hear my words...."Thus Says the Lord..."....I am Grooming you...preparing you....you will NO LONGER BE A MAN WISHY WASHY...tossed about by every opinion thrown your way..you will no longer be a man WITH A STRONG OPINION ON EVERYTHING BUT WHAT GOD HAS TO SAY!!!.....YOU WILL BE A MAN WITH A STRONG OPINION ON WHAT GOD HAS TO SAY..you will say "YES !!!!THIS IS GOD...THIS IS HIS WILL AND HIS WORD AND I WILL WALK IN IT...I am grooming you...TURN YOUR FACE .. TO.. THE.. SUN.!!!!...BASK IN IT'S GLORY ...FORGET THE PAST AND PRESS ON TO THE HIGH CALLING IN CHRIST THAT I AM CALLING YOU TO .....PLANT YOUR SOUL IN THE DEEP DEEP EARTH OF GOD'S LOVE........THIS IS....PREPARATION....PREPARATION.....PREPARATION....do this and you will reap a reward no man can take from you!!............I stood there breathless....sweating like a sinner on sunday....speechless....light headed and weak in the knees....once again GOD had invaded my life powerfully.....I was dumbfounded....I stumbled back to my seat...as the power of that word began to sink in...a fire had ignited in my soul and something that was not there a moment ago now stood in my soul... God had birthed in me .."IRON FAITH"....and it began to spread thru my whole being. I felt the beginnings of a" forged by fire" life that would grow far beyond my home town.. After the service they gave me a cassette of that. I would keep it with me for years and years. That word would grow and grow.. change me and reveal God's will for me time and time again...

Not long after this I found myself at the local music store...our home town guitar shop had been there since 1949. Started and run by an eccentric former accordion player who ran a rag tag little store that was full of odd characters, and lots of "stuff"...I was nosing around one day when I met a guy who would be one of those people who would drift in and out of my life for years to come....Bob..Bob was the new guitar teacher a very friendly guy with a big smile and a perpetual twinkle in his eye..I like him right away! ...and...(check this out) a recent GRADUATE OF....G.I.T!!!!!.all right folks...this 1982...Fairbanks Alaska...GIT is a mear 5 years old....the odds of me running into a graduate from that school..in Fairbanks???...for those of you that have never looked at a globe...see LA and the rest of the "cool" world....now go all the way to the top....back down an inch or so....and there's Fairbanks..smack dab in the middle of nowhere...so I'm eye to eye with someone who had just finished what I really wanted to do....only GOD could arrange this....Bob was just about to be the Que. ball to my 8 ball and send me flying into the corner pocket!!! after he told me that he had just graduated from GIT I was sitting there noodling on this rather nice single cut away "Ovation"...classical guitar..I said"Man I'd LOVE to go to that school but I'm not sure I'm good enough..not knowing much about music and not being able to sight read"...He looks strait at me and says` `````````````````````````` something that would once again...change my life..."You would have...NO PROBLEM..getting accepted...no problem"...REALLY!!!..so I signed up for private lessons...ran out the door...went right home and fired off letter to GIT...told the wife what had happened...

A week later the letter came with the forms and a request for an audition tape..meantime I was literally devouring everything Bob could teach me..scales,chord,harmony....I sent off the packet and got approved in short order for a student loan..the 8 ball was flying across that table heading for the corner pocket!!.
A somewhat odd but interesting note here. A wonderful couple at church had built a nice big house in a nice part of town and one of the cool things they did was build a small cozy apartment just for Granny...our"Mother " from the church..This gave Granny the freedom to sell her "old rickety house" and move into this cozy little afair close to family and church..a friend at church bought the house and renovated it...and rented it to me...It was cool and maybe a little spooky at times to sit on the steps and think about my first chord or sit in the living room and remember those early meetings...sometimes I would go stand on the spot where I had my life changing moment with God...I almost wanted to duct tape an "X" there just for sentimental reasons....
Bob and I continued to meet and finally he looked at me and said..."Dude there is nothing left I can teach you"...Bob helped me record my audition tape for GIT...He had spent time while in the military in Japan...He came back with two really nice reel to reel..two track...recorders. I had one of the first "Rockman" headphone amps...a device created by Tom Scholtze of "Boston" fame...an amazing thing for it's time.. Just plug in your guitar..put on the head phones...and you sound like "Jimi Hendrix at Winterland through a stack of Marshals"...Bob had these vynel lp's called "Drum Drops"...per recorded live drums of different styles and tempo's...I had an Takamine electric acoustic. We ran the Drum drops onto one two track with my acoustic....mixed them together...then on the other two track I mixed a "clean guitar track"...and a Distorted one with some nice chorus and delay...mixed those together..then he bouced all four down to one tract..it came out surprisingly good sounding....Hey...the Beatles only had two four tracks and they recorded "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely heart Club Band " not much more than what I had....and it ROCKED!!!so we sent that off to school...and in a week or two I got my......TICKET TO RIDE"....I had been accepted....all this happened from my first meeting with Bob to getting my loan approved, recording my demo,and getting accepted...and sucking up everything I could from him.....maybe 3 months...I went from thinking to "never being able to get out of here" to......LOOK OUT LA....HERE I COME.......God had set in motion my proper training and training from the world's best. LA here I come