A few years ago yesterday, well quite a few years ago actually, I lost an incredibly important person. My cousin who felt more like a brother passed away at 15. His constant approval was something I desired as a young man. He was my hero and I'm pretty sure he took full advantage of that knowledge on a regular basis. He knew he was a major influence on me and he reveled in it. He did all the great things a big kid does: bullying, play fighting, training me to cause just enough shit to not get into too much trouble but still have fun (I usually pushed that too far) and he was there for me whenever I needed a big brother looking out for me. I feel like I'm a better person for knowing him and learning from him.
I went through a few dark years trying to deal with the fact that the cosmos had robbed me of such a great person but I took a lot of comfort in things like music. In a big way Billy influenced my sick obsession with music and other forms of art, you know, comic books and crap like that. If it wasn't for my big cousin's bad ass ways I probably would have never bought a Pearl Jam tape at seven years old and well that would have been a fucking catastrophe. I used to dwell on all the terrible shit surrounding that situation but I'm glad that I can look back on things with a smile now.
Every time I spin a PJ disc, he's in the truck hanging out with me and that's something I'll never lose, well until the Alzheimer's kicks in but by that point I'll be so clueless that everything will be fun... Alright, unnecessary tangent. It's late, I'm tired and you should watch the video below. Thanks for everything buddy, cheers.
Ryan, wow, thank you for that.That was very well written and means a lot to hear those words from you. Your very thoughtful. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteBill
Pearl Jam is one of the best bands in the world. I discovered the album, 10, in 1993, aboard a cod fishing boat. One of the other deckhands who had enough sense to quit, but not enough sense to bring his PJ tape with him, left it for me to discover. Vedder's voice hit me like a sack of anvils and I was a PJ fan forevermore. The first time I heard 'Jeremy' and 'Alive', a little bit of larger life seeped into my growing mind. I didn't yet play guitar but when I picked it up the following year, PJ would be one of the first bands I would learn to emulate.
ReplyDeleteVedder's subsequent work on soundtracks, from 'I am Sam' to 'Dead Man Walking' to 'Into the Wild' is amazing and haunting and shows that the great Sean Penn loves him, too.
Who was Bill? Sounds like a part of you that will live forever...