I spent the rest of the year turning 30 and touring with my own band, Benchmarks, with whom we had just released a record called Our Undivided Attention towards the beginning of that year. The band was unable to tour that fall, so I looked for other work. I received a phone call from Sammy Kay, who was looking or a lead guitarist for a North American Tour supporting the Creepshow, and I was right back into playing someone else’s music.
On this tour, two very important and life-changing things happened to me: First, while sitting on a bench outside a coffee shop in Columbus, Ohio, three days into a 31 day tour, my wife told me that we were pregnant. Second, Brian Beer from Bud Bronson & the Good Timers sent me the master to their new and unreleased album Between the Outfield and Outer Space.
My previous ideas of what a musician is or isn’t supposed to be were already in question, but now were on trial. I knew I would have to scale back touring, and I knew I would have to make some decisions that would affect my creative output in the future. These are the selfish thoughts that every father-to-be has in one way or another.
