In The Wilderness: ~Jeffthro~

~Jeffthro~

Jeff and I probably go back further than anyone in the band. His father and mine were in various bands together before the 'blond one' was even born. Jeff had an unusual gift in that, for as a kid and an adult who detests reading, he literally could master anything he wanted to. First the Rubik's Cube, then Michael Jackson's moon walk (and any other dance the 'gloved one' could do), later golf and at this time in our career; the bass-guitar. Our fathers introduced our first experience in playing music with together when we were very young whippersnappers. Jeff was on bass, his older brother Johnnie on guitar and me on drums. Jeff's dad was a guitarist and mine a drummer. I still remember the transcendental feeling of the first time we ran through the flip-side of a ZZ Top '45, a song Jeff's dad thought we could perhaps play. The three instruments together somehow made my drums seem like they were actually playing and changing with the notes that Jeff and Johnnie were playing on their 'melodic' instruments. Much later, one of Vic's Nashville cohorts told me a joke that is so true. "What do you call those people who hang around musicians?" "What?" "Drummers." Much, much later, Jeff and I would discover that the two us us had the exact dynamics in OUR relationship--good and bad--that my dad and his father had over thirty years ago. This is our little brother, Jeffthro.