So the saturday comes, and we drive down to the ventura fairgrounds right on the beach. It was a beautiful day for a gun show. Unfornately, after much confusion, we come to the understanding that the gun show was the following weekend, and this weekend was a horse derby. Me, trying to be optimistic, say, "well.. you wanna go to a horse derby instead?". Why not?
So we walk in, neither of us knowing anything about the sport. So we stand and watch and try to guess how it works. A black man in an electric chair rolls past us saying, "excuse me". Well trevor, the most outgoing person you would ever meet, decides to ask him how the spot works. George begins explaining things we already figured out, confirming our theories. The numbers were based off teams with different horses switching off. The horses with the lower odds won you more money. MTB stood for minutes to begin. Things were starting to make sense.
Then George asks us, "hey, you know what I do for a living?". "What?". "I'm a music manager and producer".Trevor and I did not think too much of it, as you find them everywhere around this area. We ask him, "What artists have you worked with?" . "I've worked with Sublime, Guns 'n' roses, Michael Jackson, Snoop Dogg, Master P..." George continues to roll out names like letters in the alphabet, but trevor and I couldn't hear him cause we were laughing so hard! He's crazy! We are talking to a crazy guy! "I'm serious!!.. I'm serious!!.." he kept repeating. The entire time I was laughing from disbelief, although at the end of the day, Trevor and I planned to meet him in his studio in Universal City the next monday to play some music for him. We exchanged numbers and headed on our way. After getting home, rather than opening up my laptop, sitting on the couch, opening the fridge, I decide to pick up my dusty old guitar and give it a strum. It's been a while. Too long. All my songs were rusty. At this point George had mentally gone from a crazy man to a legit sound producer who could open me into the real world of music.
Practice, Practice, Practice. I find myself in my room playing and singing, reading from freshly written lyrics. I was moving once again. I was so excited to drive out go George's studio and show him everything I could wipe on out. Monday comes along, and I wake up from someone calling me. It was George. It was George?!?! George was calling me. Hollywood never calls. Hollywood never cares. I've worked with hollywood music before and they've always been a bunch of jerks. Always, for years and years and years, and now... George is calling me. So, I pick up and say, "hello".
Up and at 'em we go. Trevor and I on the freeway listening to one of my favorite albums, "Nevermind" by Nirvana while holding our demos in our hands, tapping our feet to the music and a big anxious smile on our faces.
Pulling up to the driveway, we see him through the window. My first thought was, "That liar! He can walk, he's just lazy!". He greets us at the door and as we walk in he says, "Okay now you gotta see I'm legit, look at my records..". His apartment was any other ordinary overpriced city apartment. Coffee table, couches, chairs, computers, random guitars lying around. But lo and behold, I look up and the first thing I see is Three Silver records behind a picture of Sublime's debut album. While still holding my guitar, I walk straight up to it, and read it. 3,000,000 copies sold. I look behind me and see Snoop Dogg 2,000,000 records sold. Master P 4,000,000 records sold. I can keep going and going. His phone rings, and before he picks it up, he says, "You know who Jon Moffat is?". "No." "He is one of the greatest drummers in the world. Played for Michael Jackson". Trevor and I's eyes glow as George answers the phone, "Whatup Jon!"
Immediately, the craziness was sucked out of George, and when I look at him with my eyebrows high and a smile, He looks like different. He is a record producer. He's been in the business for over 40 years. So he sits us down, and talks about the life and what was expected out of us in the music industry. I was in such bliss, I didn't care, and told him how passionate I was about music, and how I would cancel anything to work with him. Trevor plays the first half of his songs, and George criticizes him saying, "I like you, and I am interested in working with you". Then my turn. I show him a bit of this and a bit of that. He said I looked very comfortable while playing. I wasn't. I was so nervous. But he labeled the same thing on my forehead, saying, "I like you, and I am very interesting in working with you".
We leave George's studio with plans of calling him and meeting with him separately. I was very excited to get signed by MCA records. My highway to fame with lit up in lights and people we're all pointing down the same road. It was all very strange how quickly it all happened.
That night, I called him, and he said he liked me a lot and really wants to get something started. He suggests to start out with an EP. I also told him about my hitch-hiking adventure. He suggest somehow turning that into a music video. He says, "I know people that could do anything. I got my director, I got my editor, My old friend masters, I manage and produce". I began to consider not returning to school, so I could stay and work with him. I still couldn't be too sure. Because I wanted to go to school and be with my friends there. All my friends from home were elsewhere. School, traveling, touring, living elsewhere. I was in a tough pickle...
I ask friends, parents, and even old teachers what I should do! I pray and pray and ponder and ponder.
Strangely, EVERYTHING was pointing towards backing out on the deal. I got accepting into every class I wanted, I have plans to play drums in my friends band in rexburg. All my friends are there. I don't want to be here.
It was about a week later when I finally came to the realization that I should not take the deal. It was a tuesday afternoon and I'm talking to George on the phone. I tell him I couldn't make it. I tell him about my plans to go out of town for the holidays. He seemed down, and asked, "So when am I going to see you?" I tell him I will call him. As much I would love the opportunity to record with the famous George Refner of MCA in a world historic studio, I just don't want to.
I always say myself growing up rocking out on a stage in front of thousands of people. Singing in a big nice studio with a 70 year old black man who i barely understand producing me. But now that the actual opportunity came up, I just did not want to do it. It's very hard to explain the feelings I felt. I was not nervous, or afraid, or pushed by anyone but myself. And I was pushing myself away from it.
This experience leaves me with three things.
1
Now I can say, "Yeah.. MCA wanted me, but I told 'em nahH!"
2
I learned something about myself. I love my friends. I love being me. I love doing what I want, and am motivated to do". I don't mind recording from a silly kareoke mic on free software I downloaded five minutes beforehand. I am happy with that. I really am.
3
I also replenished my passion for music. It was buried under dust. Lots of dust. This experience was a lovely reminder and wake up call to keep this talent going. I remember my dad always telling me the parable of the talents. Three people were given talents. The first man received one talent, the second man received five, and the third man received ten. Throughout their lives, the second and third man used their talents for good and for pleasure. When their lives are over, the second man ends up with ten talents, and the third man end up with twenty talents. Although the first man was scared of losing his talent, so he buried it so nothing bad could possibly happen to it. But then came and went his life, and at the end of it all, he had forgotten about his talent. It was lost. It has been forgotten. For the rest of my life, I will play and write music. Expressing my emotions from the back of my mind, to the front, to the paper, to the fretboard, to vibrations in the air, to my friends, to my family, to the stages, to the recording booths, to the world. One ear at a time.
_________________________________________________________MUSIC IS MUSIC!
BUSINESS IS BUSINESS!
POLITICS ARE POLITICS!
LIFE IS LIFE!
LOVE IS LOVE!
HAPPINESS IS HAPPINESS!
DO NOT CONFUSE ANY OF THESE!!
Our societies media and lifestyles jumble all of these into giant balls of chaos. There is soul and there is purity in everything and once abused, it is scarred. A simple life is a happy life. That's why I said no.
Live alive and healthy my friends!
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