When I left my band, I had to start over from scratch, and that's a scary place to go.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Even the two times that I left, I never really felt like I left the band. It's very bizarre. It's like there's sort of an umbilical cord that stretches between us spiritually.
I remember Glenn Miller coming to me once, before he had his own band, saying, How do you do it? How do you get started? It's so difficult. I told him, I don't know but whatever you do don't stop. Just keep on going.
I know that starting out as a young band, it's really easy to get lost with bands that sound the same or with the plethora of music that's out there.
There's definitely a solitary aspect to not having a band, and there are times when I wish that I did.
I've seen bands split up for five years and do nothing. That sounds great to me, but it just hasn't worked out that way.
I've always been worried about the band but I've got to the point now where I think it's time to start thinking about myself a bit more.
In the late summer of 1986, the band I had been in for five years stopped playing. Suddenly, I was on my own. This new state of bandlessness was, at first, traumatic. When your group breaks up, a lot of broken parts hit the ground.
I didn't have the confidence to leave the band because of a solo career, or anything like that. I just wanted to grow.
Leave bands, go back to obscurity if I choose to, without a great sense of loss of security because it's all been based on the fact that I did it on my own or was doing, enjoying doing it on my own in the first place.
I've always just given myself to the band, if you know what I mean, and been busy with that.