The stench of a Hondo

I was now spending a lot of time with Gabriel and his band. I was learning more about music, being in bands, and new bands to listen to. I was also learning a lot about the local music scene. I really began to listen to our local punk rock radio show, Saturday mornings 12pm-5pm Ska, Punk, and Other Junk on WMMT 88.7fm. Hosted by none other than Evan Smith, Brennan Hunt, Derek Mullins, and a whole slew of other folks that would randomly show up. Through this radio show I learned of other local bands, shows, and the infamous Skullboy Records. Being 14, in my freshmen year of highschool this was all an interesting time for me, a time for change, a time for transition, and a time for learning. It's hard for me to keep the timeline of events straight but I will do my best. If nothing else I will keep the details as accurate as possible. It was now pushing into the early part of the school year, I was itching to meet some people interested in music and getting a band going. I eventually met Lee Sturgill and Terry Fields, I began to hang out with them at school and talk about music. Terry only lived a few miles from me so on weekends our parents would host rides so we could hangout in my bedroom listening to all types of shitty nu-metal and band around on our shitty guitars. At this point I didn't even know how to tune a guitar. I continued to run around with my cousin Gabe, then one day he invited me to go to hazard to jam with Steve Smith of Misled Youth and mutual friend Doug Reynolds. I arrive to catch a few songs from the Misled Youth practice and to see how this jam session would work out. This night I met Jason Ritchie another Hazard musician.  Apparently the jam session didn't work out because I don't remember ever going back. However, I did make some new friends and some new people that were a part of the 'scene'. Now at this point I had started dating a girl much older than me, which meant I now had a ride to practice. Somehow, through angelfire, geocities, or some online forum I got in contact with Jason Ritchie, he wanted to start a band, he played guitar, he knew where I could get a cheap bass, he had an extra guitar amp I could use, and guess what my new friend Lee Sturgill played drums, and Terry was thrilled with the idea of doing vocals. My first step was to get a ride to purchase this Hondo bass for $15. I finally did, it smelled like shit, it only had two strings, and was all out of wack, but it worked and got me started.... i can still smell that damned thing, fuck!