the zakk fest

and so i went to josh's guitar student's recital
last nite. called the zakkfest as a spoof on the
ozzfest and named after one of josh's student's
zakk.

josh's grace and love and caring and gentleness
with his students flowed all over that room.
of course, all in his colorful, crazy, zany way.

(did i mention his red velvet top hat, tiger pants
and pink chucks??)

at one point there was a technical problem and
josh was havin' a hard time jugglin' everything
up front.

there was a young guy who had come to squat down
next to me to say hello. an old student of josh's.
friendly, personable, a musician who liked to perform.

i nudged him.
go on up and talk. you're a talker, you can do it.

he stepped right up to that mic and jumped right in.

introduced himself as a former student of josh's
and started talkin' about josh as a teacher. he said
that you get way more than a music lesson when you go
see josh. that he cared about you and your life and
how you were as a person. he said he'd been gone for
about a year, and he would still get check ins from
josh just checkin' in on him and makin' sure he was
okay. he talked about how josh saw each student as a
person who counted.

then that young man looked over at me.
he said 'i know his mother's a huge influence on him.
and she's had a great affect on his life.'

wow.
wasn't expecting that one.

then he made some joke about josh and sat back down
and the music started up again.

it was really cool that this guy who couldn't be
any older than 17 said all that stuff...

each kid got a moment to be a rock star.

josh said something about each one that came up. told
a story, described them, made sure we knew something
good about each one of them.

and then they played.

josh would gently and quietly scoot microphones closer,
he moved one girl's long hair out of her way at one point
so gently and quietly, he leaned over and helped one with
fingers without ever really interrupting....

it didn't matter which level you were, you got
cheered and clapped and appreciated and told you were
great.

there was one kid there that seemed like a natural. the one
who stood out. 9 years old. wrote his own original song....
when he played, he was so comfortable with that guitar.

i found his mother afterwards.....asked if he was her son.
'you're gonna be rich,' i said. 'man, you'll have some nice
cars in your future!'

turns out.......i didn't realize......
she's a single mom. was going to have to stop the guitar lessons
a little while ago as money was getting tight. josh said no.
not unless he wanted to stop. but if he didn't, they were gonna
work out a scholarship for him. that he needed to play.

wouldn't that just be something if that was the one who made
it big??

but last nite.....they all made it big.
the smiles were huge....the pride and happiness was everywhere.
the support and love and encouragement in that room
rocked the walls.

i sat there and thought......josh created this.
he made this happen....

i could not have been more proud of him.