I have a few musician friends. Alright, more than a few. When you love something, you tend to hang out with people who love the same thing. Most of them I've known for years, some of them, decades. We've watched each write good stuff, write terrible stuff, bomb open-mics and auditions, hit a D in our chest voices, decide to pick up the guitar way past our prime, and generally, just love sitting around and making this crazy music thing.
The thing is, we're all older now. Some of us are married. Some of us are married with kids. And mortgages. And lawns to mow. And parent-teacher conferences to attend. And for some reason, these circumstances have led some of us to believe that we are too old to keep doing what we love to do.
I shared on Facebook a few weeks back about an 80 year old man killing it at an open-mic. I mean it. He played the fiddle like nobody's business. The hipster kid with the ironic mustache and beat-up Gibson waiting to play his, ingenious I'm sure, rendition of a Woodie Guthrie song walked right on out. This older gentleman made me think of the artists I love, and why I love them. And I got to tell you, none of them are sixteen. Not a one.
Did you know that Sharon Jones was a middle-aged, corrections officer at Riker's Island before she got discovered????? In her late forties?????? What? Have you SEEN her? I did. At the Apollo. And all I could think as I was sitting there, was, "I can't believe I'm at the Apollo." I bet, backstage, she was saying the same thing.
Emmylou Harris is 65 years old. She just finished another tour. She has two adult children who don't seem to mind that their Mama's a music legend who often made her experience on the road their own.
Patti Smith wanted to be an author. An author. When she worked at a bookstore in the late sixties, it was her dream to shelve one of her own. The rock star thing, well, that was an accident. She was 28 when Horses debuted. An old lady, according to current standards.
Bonnie Raitt, also 65. Have you heard her recently? She's as blues as ever. Her voice is even still silky. How does she do that?
The women I respect, whom I love to listen to, are all, well, they're old. You know why I love them? Because when they sing about heartbreak, I believe they've been there. When they tell a story, they've earned a listen. They've lived, they've learned; there's wisdom and grace laced between their words. No one's talking about what they're wearing, who they're dating or whose wedding they crashed. They make music because they love it. They don't care who listens, and that's why I do.
I may never be a rock star, and that's ok. But it's not going to be because I'm too old. Because, you're never too old to do something you love.