Waylon Payne, Napster artist of the year, or so I hear!

Rewind things 12 years and I'm just a wayward drifter playing the part of the universal tourist. Somehow the tides of fate landed me in California in a hotel room hanging out with an amazing Irishmen, a German/Korean and this young guitarist just trying to figure out how to get started in a highly competitive industry. I had a deep respect and trust for these people because they were genuinely good hearted folks, and Waylon in particular was principled, refusing to play any songs but his own. No matter how much I teased him, he would not cave in, but the songs he played that he crafted with his own hands were ones I will never forget.

I knew I didn't belong in that place with those people, I barely survived that lifestyle for six months, so I had to bid them farewell, which looking back on things seems to be the bitter-sweet story of my life. I'm glad for all the fun times and I hope out there somewhere those three are still having the time of their lives. That was an age of crossroads and things could have went in a dozen different directions, but I'm kind of glad they went the way they did. I doubt I would have ever made any progress on the roads that really mattered had I stayed there with them.

I know some people make fun of Dorothy for having such a hard time finding her way to the Emerald city when there was really only just the one road, but Oz has a strange way about it so the bricks don't really fall into place until just after you take your next step. All you can do is keep walking and hope that when the other foot falls it is still firmly planted on a brick of solid gold.