The Sexy Old Man Discount.

I've been meaning to tell this tale for quite some time now...

A couple months ago I was in the studio and noticed Dean was wearing this amazing admiral's jacket. When I asked him about it, he told me he got it at Dragonfly on Melrose and that the little old Asian dude who works there told him, "Next time, call me 'sexy old man' and I give you a discount". I remembered the little old man. He had helped Dan and I during a shopping spree a while back. He was very sweet, but there was no discount. I was intrigued by Dean's story. I like Dragonfly and I like discounts. This sounded like something worth exploring.

About a week later I found myself on Melrose. I poked in and out of a few stores, bought some killer pants at Forgotten Saints, then decided I was ready to take the plunge. I walked into Dragonfly and saw him standing there. 

I tossed my head back, threw open my arms, and said "Hey, sexy old man!" in a very sexalicious voice. 

He gave me a big hug and said, "You called me 'sexy old man', you know what that means?" 

I played coy, "No, what does it mean?"

"It means you get 50% off anything you purchase today."

Hell yes.

I let him bring me all sorts of fabulous things to try on, and we chatted the whole time. I got to hear about his daughter at MIT, his views on the recession, and his tastes in music. I told him about Breaker, my Jeep, and shopping in NYC. I tired on 6 or 7 tops and what I ended up liking was a $66 t-shirt and a $180 sailor-style hoodie. I had my doubts about the discount - 50% seemed like a lot. Then as I was about to bring my goods over to the register he said, "and for you, no tax". Ok, now I was in shock. Was this for real? He went over to the calculator, punched in some numbers, and looked disappointed. "I knew it was too good to be true", I thought.

Then he said, "we can do better discount for t-shirt. Half is $33, how about I charge you $26?" Can I get a hell yes? What would have ended up costing $266.29 only cost $116. No joke. Just for using three magic words - SEXY OLD MAN! 

I gave him a great big hug goodbye and thanked him for a wonderful shopping experience. I kept smiling to myself the whole way home: He made my day by giving me a great discount on some killer clothes, and I made his day simply by calling him a sexy old man. 

I love this world and all of it's wonders.

TENFOLD TRUE: Volume II

For months on end, my brother, Dan, kept playing this crazy guitar riff that I could barely make sense of. "What the fuck am I supposed to sing over that?" I wondered. The thing was catchy, but damn near impossible for me to create a coherent melody over. Dan and I brought the riff to our producer, Dean, who made a song out of the fantastic noise by carving out wide open spaces for my voice to fill. Add to that assaulting drums (courtesy of Ken Schalk) & a heap of booming bass and I was sold: The thing suddenly made sense to me...and it reminded me of that night sitting in the parking lot of the Forum Diner. I knew my orphaned lyrics had finally found their home in this song.

The day before tracking vocals on "Tenfold True", Dean called me to let me know that Lukas Rossi, formerly of Rockstar Supernova and currently heading up Stars Down, would be stopping by the studio to sit in on my session. "Holy Fuck. What?"

Truthfully, I became suddenly self-conscious and stupid nervous.

It turned out that getting nervous was for nothing. Lukas was a cool cat, and we spent a couple hours killing Coors Lights and talking about all things sacred, namely women and music, before I headed into the tracking room. I cranked out the vocals pretty quickly, and Lukas remained quiet for most of it. Although, after my leads were done, Lukas started suggesting some harmonies (which he is exceedingly talented at writing). Next thing I knew, Lukas was asking if he could have a go at singing 'em: I certainly didn't need to give it a second thought.

Here's the truth: we could have sounded awful together. We could have gone through the motions and created a perfunctory vocal suckfest. What was happening that day was this incredible musical synergy, this brilliant exchange of energies, that created a beautiful rock n' roll masterpiece, and as it turns out: Lukas and I sound amazing together!

It took so many people's contributions to bring "Tenfold True" to life. And as I had mentioned in the previous post: that is what I love about music! I am eager for everyone to hear "Tenfold True" on BREAKER's upcoming debut release. Full lyrics in the next post...In the meantime, check out BREAKER on MySpace to get yer fix.