Creativity is a funny thing. When you feel like yours is being held back, it’s time to move on. I’m not here to throw anyone under the bus here, but one of my band mates was being rather demanding, insisting that I play a particular cover that I frankly just did not like or have any desire to play. I offered an alternate plan for AZ, the original rock band. My plan was for us to go on infinite hiatus until such time as he feels interested in playing our originals again. It’s not as if I have any shortage of hobbies or creative things to do.

In the meantime, I’ve assembled another cast of players to develop new music, including AZ’s drummer, Jeremy. We had our first practice today and I have to say it was fun, low pressure and entirely positive. No one insulted me or my home and I left feeling very optimistic. We even managed to put together a new song from scratch on our very first jam session.

It’s about respect of the people you play with and having a uniformed affinity for the music you play. The new group has it. The old one did not. You’ll be hearing more new music from me soon and I’ve rather excited about that.

This doesn’t mean that I’m angry with anyone. I respect the AZ brand and Todd is as much a part of that as anyone. I’m simply unwilling to have any person hold me back from making the music that flows from my heart and head. It’s in there and it NEEDS to come out. So, I cannot be concerned with playing covers or tolerating rude comments and behavior. This should be fun otherwise we’d call it work. It’s music, Ya’ll. Music!