backdoor2

By 1995 I was totally out of control, the studio wasn’t making any money because of me not trying. So I had to go outside and get a job. I
had a friend that had a machine shop and I was a fairly good machinist, so he gave me a part time job. About this time I found out I was up
to my ass in debt with the IRS. I just let it go, on top of that the machine shop wasn’t holding out taxes, so it wasn’t helping any. My night
life didn’t stop, if anything it was worse. It was so bad at one time I would have to go outside to see if I had wrecked my car. Even my close
friends started thinking I was out of hand, and I was. I was setting at a red light one afternoon coming home from work, I looked over at the
car next to me and it was the cops. I was so drunk that I could hardly focus. I had been very lucky in the past that I hadn't had a DUI. That
was the day that I started thinking that my time was running out. Something else happened about this time, I got a call that my youngest
girl had been caught smoking pot. This really got to me, I knew in my heart that this was my fault. The next few things that happen were a
blessing. I was a little drunk and high at the time and I got up to go to the bathroom. As I passed the mirror I looked in it and said a prayer,
it went something like - God if You help my little girl be safe I’ll stop smoking pot. I didn't smoke pot anymore after that, but I was still
drinking heavily.

A few other things happened just about this time. I always kept a daily log of things that happen in the studio. It was the last thing I did
every night. One night I wrote in it something that I couldn't even read, but I could read the part that said only Jesus can help me. A few
days later I was setting in Tony's pizza drinking a beer by myself, I have had my usual 10 to 12. I looked down at the beer I was drinking
and it was half full, I said to myself that it I'm through with it. Something else happened one night about this time, back before I stop
smoking pot. I had decided I want to write a song about Ed Wood, the guy that did all the cheap horror movies back in the 50s. It was two
o'clock in the morning and I was in the control room working. I had on headphones and was working with a lot of effects - echo and
reverb. Back a few months before this one of the member in a band was sitting on the couch and draw a picture of what he said was my
studio ghost. I didn't think anything of it because I always told people that Elvis was in the house. I was using a music stand with the
words that I was writing to Ed Wood’s song. At the time I didn't know it but there was a thunderstorm going on. All of a sudden the
equipment blinked and made a real weird sound, it freaked me out and I pulled off the headphones. When I did I kicked the music stand,
the picture of the studio ghost fell out. I glanced over my shoulder and thought someone was standing there, it was a pair of sunglasses
on top of the speaker. Nevertheless the hair on the back of my neck stood up and I couldn't com down. I felt a presence in the studio, I
turned off all the equipment and was going upstairs. At the top of the stairs was a dresser, on the dresser was a Bible my uncle Johnny
gave me. As I went by I picked it up, for the
next several months I read it.

In that short time, just a few weeks my life changed. People always ask me how I quit smoking cigarettes, that's how - Jesus

At the time all this was going on I was working with Philip Myers, bass player. He had a friend moving back from California, Steve Corbett
a guitar player. I was still trying to rent out the studio and from time to time I did. One of the bands that came through had a sound man,
Joel Epperson. So for the next few months we four work together. For the first time in my music career, except for the very early days, I
was working sober. It was going pretty good, we were doing some real good music I think. We were step building them, most of the time
there were only two of us in the studio. I really wanted to do all the songs live, and just add a few overdubs. We tried on one of my songs,
‘Don't Leave Me Here Alone’. Corbett didn’t like the time it was taking, so we didn't do that. I pretty much lost interest after that, we only
work together a short time more. During that time I wrote a gospel song, my first – ‘Lord Forgive Me’. One of the bands that came through
the studio was Jerry Lee Riley's, his piano player was Wendell Lee.Wendell came in the studio one day to talk about doing a CD. As we
were talking he mentioned he wanted to do a gospel CD, I was all for it.

Wendell wanted to do a quartet with some friends of his from church. This was one of the most fulfilling times at Backdoor Studio, instead
of rolling a joint they said a prayer. He was very open to a lot of my ideas, one was naming the project - The Believers. Wendell was a good
piano player, and he was paying me good too. I wrote four gospel songs during this time, I enjoyed the time I worked with Wendell. It was
about this time that the IRS put a lien on my property, I knew it was coming I just didn't care. I really thought they were going to come in
and take everything. I went to a CPA to see if he could help, he did help catch me up on all my returns. At that time I was $20,000 into them,
he was going to do a compromise for me. It went on for over a year and for some reason we just never did it. A friend of mine had been
taking care of my yard, so I didn't need a lawn mower. After all the partying stopped, I looked around and everyone was gone. I needed a
mower so I went to Sears. I was ready to pay cash for it and the guy asked me if I wanted to open a Sears credit. I said yes knowing that
they wouldn’t let me because of the IRS, to my surprise they ok it. Believe it or not that was the start to me getting my credit back.

Willie, my cousin came by one night with his new wife, Manuela. She asked if I would teach her to play the boogie-woogie on piano. I told
her I would show her what I knew. So one Saturday night I got my guitar and went over to their house. By the end of the night we were
doing a song, and she was starting to get the boogie-woogie. I think I enjoyed it as much as she did, it was giving me a chance to play
guitar and sing. So we made plans to do it every Saturday night from 6 to 9. After we got about 15 songs together I asked if she wanted to
record them, she did. So for three or four Saturday nights they came to the studio to record. I recorded them straight to DAT, and then put
them into the computer for overdubs. I have been doing just odd jobs to pay the bills, painting, working in machine shops. I would go
back to Buckeye
from time to time and work with my brother in the plant machine shop. Buckeye had two machine shops, one for the plant and one for
product development. One day the boss from the PD department called and asked if I wanted to work for them for a few weeks, and I did. I
went to work as a contractor still getting a 1099, so they were not taken taxes out on me. After a year or so I went to work for a friend’s
company still working in PD at Buckeye, so now they were taking out taxes on me. So at the end of every year I would get a letter from the
IRS saying they were holding my return, this went on for five years, so I play the IRS about 15,000 of the 25 I owed them.

I was over at a friends house one Thanksgiving week end, I was talking about renting a house for the last 25 years. One of the girls there
was a real estate agent, she said she could get me in to a house. I told her about the IRS, she said she could still do it. She got all my
information and within a few days she call with some houses. She had five houses she warned me to look at in the $70,000 range. The first
house we looked at I knew it was mine, it had everything I wanted. It wasn't in a great neighborhood but the house was perfect, I knew I
couldn't afford a good neighborhood. So from May 1st. 1990 to January 15th. 2007 I lived on Getwell Rd. There were lots of things that
happened in that house, sex drugs and rock 'n roll and some blues. I'm not going to talk about the sex, I wouldn’t want to hurt anybody
now that was involved. It's all in the past, I guess you could say I got well on Getwell. Cherrydale coming soon...

BackDoor Studio
part 2

1995 / 97