Re: Jerry's Breakdown (In The Presence of God)


"JMK"
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> Nice.


Thanks


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> Nice site too. Curious - what was Holdsworth's day job?


He painted apartments part-time... for $50 each. He lived with his
girlfriend off of Red Hill Ave. in Tustin, CA...down on the cheap side of
town... where I lived. LoL! I think she really believed in him and probaly
did most of the bill paying for a while... lol cause he really didn't make
squat back then, he was pretty much fresh off the boat from England and was
playing with Jeff Berlin a bit, pre-I.O.U days.

I love to tell these stories because, I feel, they were an important part of
my guitar playing development, learning to see great players as regular
people like myself, only harder working... lol.

I used to see Alan around the mean streets of Tustin at least a couple times
a month for a couple of years, usually in the hardware store next door to
the print shop where I worked. This was probably 1982-83, back just before
the time when Van Halen was trying to make everyone aware of him. I only
stopped to introduce myself to once in the store when I damn near walked
right into him. I told him I had just gotten back from GIT and that I was
fortunate enough to have a chance to study with Jeff Berlin as my
performance instructor. He was totally unimpressed... hahaha. He was kind of
a quiet guy and was polite but he didn't say much. After that I just gave
him the social, "hey dude, hows it goin" when I walked by him wherever. LoL!

To me it was like walking passed Jesus Christ or something... but no one
else knew him from Jack ***. I couldn't believe no one knew who he was. I
would glow from head-to-toe every time I even caught a glimpse of his form
from a passing car... hahaha!

He always seemed to me like a regular guy with a huge secret... that he was
a god... in duds, just trying to make ends meet like the rest of us. I was
just back from G.I.T. and I wanted to ask him if I could study with him but
I was just too scared to ask him...LoL! And he wasn't the kind of guy to go
out of his way to make you feel comfortable. Same happened 10 years later
with Satriani when I moved when I moved to Sonoma County, CA. He was always
around, and I'd see him regularly. We even had a mutual frind, my vocal
teacher, Sarah Baker. They we actually close friends. So I totally had an
IN, too. Joe was way more friendly, then Alan but I was just too scared to
ask him for help, even though he was taking students. What a *** I am. An
ordinary man in the presence of Gods.

I remember I had a friend who was a great guitarist, just way better than
me, even in high school he was just dynamite. He worked one door down from
me in the some nameless strip mall in Tustin where I worked, in the space
immediately adjacent to the hardware store where I saw Alan all the time. I
thought he knew Alan lived in Tustin or had even saw him as much as I did,
but he hadn't... one day my friend dropped the shop at lunch and made me
come out to his car. He wanted me listen to Holdsworth's newest album... He
was on fire about Alan's legato and all this... Alan was his everything at
that point. We listened to a few songs as he freaked out about every killer
run. When I told him Alan lived about a mile from where we were sitting, you
should have seen his jaw drop. I said, "yeah, he comes into the hardware
store right here all the time... I thought you knew... You're here as much
as I am" He was just shocked. he kept saying, "NO WAYYY! NO WAYYYYY!!!"

When he finally told me a few weeks later he had seen Alan I said, "What did
you say to him." He told me, "uhhh, nothin, ya know... uhhh, I didn't want
to bug'im 'rrrr anything..." I just laughed.

Hahaha!
What is it about those guys that gives them that protective shield of
intimidation even though they eat at the same cheap restaurants and shop at
the same stores that you do?

too funny,
Vincent


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