The Eye of the Hurricane

[The Classics] – Where it all began

Occasionally I get asked various things about where I grew up and what kind of things I did as a kid that really got me into listening to music. I grew up in a small town in central Texas, called Groesbeck, that had a population of about 4,000 people and there really wasn’t much to do around town as a kid. As we grew up to late Jr. High age we were constantly looking for something to do that would make us look “cool” to anyone older or younger than us. Generally that involved swiping Thunderbird or MadDog 20-20 from the local Exxon store and hiding out pretending that we liked the taste or that we were wasted.

I had a friend named Brad that was one year older than me and I would say that looking back, he was the person that really made listening to music “cool” in my life. I lived way out in the country where there is nothing to do and definitely no trouble to get into… so I would always spend the night at his house where his parents really didn’t care what we did. They would have a few drinks, go to sleep and leave us to pretty much walk around town and do all the things that young kids shouldn’t be doing. Brad went into High School a year earlier than I did and that meant that we were growing up… time to quit walking around town and start going places in a car.. after all.. we were grown young men and responsible. Right?

As young kids without a car, too young for a license and no money for anyone else’s gas it led us to one inevitable thing… Wait till Brads parent’s go to sleep and sneak their car out of the driveway. The thing about Groesbeck is that it’s situated exactly right between Dallas and Houston and 60 miles from anywhere remotely interesting. So we’d pile into Brad’s parent’s 1980′s Blue Oldsmobile Delta 88 land yacht and head out at 11 at night to just go ride around the backroads. No CD player.. no tape deck, not even an 8-track. Just an FM radio that would only pick up Waco’s crappy pop music station or random country music that neither of us liked at all. Back then he and I listened to all Heavy Metal which was not an easy job when you are located that far away from anything culturally relevant so we’d drive north towards Dallas on backroads (as to not meet any of the local police force) till we could pick up Dallas’s 97.1 The Eagle and listen to Heavy Metal all through the night. We’d pick up on what was really going on in the world one late night at a time.

Fast forward a couple months to right before my Freshman year in High School, circa 1991, and we were driving around and heard on the radio a reminder that Metallica would be releasing their latest album, The Black Album, the next day. We knew that there was no way in hell Groesbeck or the neighboring town’s Walmart would be carrying that album on the release day. We quickly devised a plan that involved driving to Waco right away and sleeping in the mall parking lot till the music store opened at 9am. We’d quickly buy the album and haul butt back to Groesbeck before his parents woke up. So picture this… The sun is coming up on two young 14/15 year old kids in a stolen Oldsmobile in a Waco mall parking lot. Not a pretty site had their been any sort of police around or responsible adults around at 7am on a weekday. At 9:00 we rush in, buy the cassette tape (What’s a CD?) and take off towards home!

This is where our plan starts to get hairy. Like I mentioned before, the site of us in a big boat of a car was not only downright hilarious but screamed something illegal was going on. We hadn’t considered that we’d have to drive back an hour in broad daylight! Not just through Waco, but also through Groesbeck… where everyone knows everyone! Our response to the problem at hand was quickly put into play. Just go faster. Obviously the quicker we get home, the sooner this will be over. And keep in mind.. we have a brand new cassette tape… but no tape deck! Even more reason to go faster! We get to his house with no real problem other than the occasional “Why are you driving that fa… wait… aren’t you too young to drive?” glare from people. We bail out of the car hoping that his parents aren’t awake.. but realize we smell bacon and eggs coming from the house.. they are awake! No! We quickly run around to his window we sneak INTO his room as quiet as we can, put the tape in, hope his parents don’t notice there are no keys this morning, and lay on the bed as the tape cycles through “auto-reverse” for the next couple hours as we listened mesmerized at what we were hearing coming through those speakers.

It’s hard to put my finger on exactly when music became a standard part of my life, but when I think back this story pretty much is where it all began. It’s a little long but hope you enjoyed it. And no.. we never got in trouble for that… I just hope his parents don’t read this!

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