The Live Music Event That Changed My Life

I’ve occasionally mentioned that a visit to a nightclub in my teen years changed my life. Sometimes I’ve shared a few details, but I’ve never told the whole story.

But it’s worth telling. This incident had an earthshaking impact on me, transforming everything almost in an instant. Just knowing that these things are possible might help others—so I’ve decided to tell this tale in its entirety.

Many of us wonder how we find our own path in the world. This is the story of how it happened for me.

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I must have had some musical inclination as a small child. My mother kept a ‘baby book’ of photos and observations. It’s unsettling to read her description of me at the age of one—when, she writes, I liked to play the piano and drink coffee.

That could still describe me today. 

I’m probably still wary of strange men and continue to avoid sitting in any playpen. On a positive note, I don’t bite people anymore.

But I was not a child prodigy, not even close. Neither of my parents were musicians—so they didn’t see this as a career path.

I did have an Uncle Ted (I was named after him) who had an amazing musical gift, you might even describe it as genius. But he died in a plane crash at age 28, before I was born. So I never had him around as a role model, much to my later regret, although I may have benefited from a bit of his DNA.

But my parents did inherit his piano. That would later be very important in my development.

My first music lessons were a few encounters with Sister Camille Cecile, a nun who taught piano at my elementary school. These took place around 3rd or 4th grade, and I didn’t enjoy them. So I asked my parents if I could quit taking lessons, and they agreed.

They were spending three dollars per month on piano lessons. So if I wasn’t interested, that money could be used elsewhere in our tight family budget.

At that juncture, you would have never guessed that music would be important in my later vocation.

But something strange happened.

After I quit taking lessons, I continued to play the piano.