I was in trouble at school. My parents were mad, I was deep in the throes of figuring out how to cut school with no consequences and it wasn’t working as planned at all. I’m sure it was gut-wrenching for my mom and dad trying to figure out how to get me to stop, and that was working just about as well.

I was in a band in Taiwan then, and I was the youngest guy in the band. We had to change the name of the band from the stellar name, Happy Toke because my dad found out what it referred to. I had to go to practice and tell all the big guys my daddy said no. And not just no, but goddamit, NO! I was so scared they would all laugh at me, but the drummer, (who was the coolest of us) piped up, “How about Zig Zag?” And then it was our name.

But I was still in trouble for skipping school or smoking in the bathroom, or bad grades, or a litany of other offenses I just couldn’t seem to stop doing and finally, my dad told me I had to quit the band until I got my ass figured out. We had one more gig and that was a battle of the bands at the High School gymnasium and I begged him to let me quit after that and he acquiesced. Zig Zag would rock one more night.

There were a few bands and we all set up around the perimeter of the basketball court. Then we played. There were some great bands too. We had Mother Goose playing the Motown hits of the time, and we had Nepenthe with the finest musicians on the Island, and a couple of others I can’t recall. Zig Zag played last, and we were okay,  but we weren’t bringing down the house.

Our last song, our finale was “Here’s a Little World You Can All Join in With.” It was a Traffic song and it kinda has a country/bluegrass feel. Our lead singer, Ray Fisher, was a great singer and he could get a crowd humming and he did. We rocked that song and people were cheering all the way through. I felt like a rock star. It was the most exhilarated I’d ever been on stage. But all the way through I was thinking about how this was the last time I would ever do that thing. I felt like crying while I did my bluegrass leads through the song. When I looked at all my classmates in the audience it was like I was on a big screen and I imagined everyone could see my anguish.

I don’t know who won the battle of the bands, but we were stars and the adulation was heavy and the congratulations were many as we packed up our stuff. My dad was there, he transported me there, and would take me and all my musical equipment home to be exiled to the bedroom to gather dust. When we got in the car I was devastated. We rode home mostly in silence.

When we were close to home my dad told me he really enjoyed our set and told me I played really well. I think he had the same tears as I did. And he told me to get my act together or figure out how to keep my act from affecting others, (in other words, Don’t Get Caught!) and I would be allowed to play again sometime soon.

I’m still playing today, And I have to thank my dad for paving my path. Like he always said, “Them God Damn Sons-A-Bitches!”