So here I am in August. As expected, COVID came back once people thought it was cool and fun to get together and ignore reality (despite the obvious that reality doesn’t avoid us), the country burst into flames (OK, didn’t see that coming but should have), and, then in the most unexpected of events I fell in my kitchen 3 weeks ago, breaking my ankle in 3 places requiring emergency surgery, several large screw, metal plates, 27 stitches, crutches and casts.

I couldn’t practice for a couple of weeks because I had to keep my ankle elevated and found no easy way to hold a bass… but now I’m back at it baby!

My band just received news that our keyboardist is unable to continue with us, so we are starting to look for a new keyboardist, in addition to a vocalist – but we haven’t practiced since mid March and do not know when we will be getting together again.

I’m continuing on with my bass cover videos – UK’s “The Only Thing She Needs” – juiced up – is coming to my Youtube channel soon. The music project I recorded last year for Chris Steberl (featuring former Fates Warning drummer Mark Zonder) was picked up by a record label and is now number 1 on the Radio Guitar One charts – ahead of Tony MacAlpine, Stu Hamm, and Paul Gilbert:

I’m hoping to get to do more work for Chris and others soon (maybe something with Aquiles Priester!), so that’s cool.

About my friend with cancer mentioned in my last blog, he’s decided to forego treatment for his cancer, which is pretty scary. I’ve been reading and while it is sage 4, there is a 3 in 4 chance of surviving 5 years, which sounds pretty good with stage 4 cancer, but not so good when you could accept the (harsh) treatment and be done with it. So it’s made me anxious about his future, and very worried.

That’s not cool.

I spent a few weeks this summer playing nothing but my fretless Carvin bass, because fretless playing is just faster and more fun to play. My plans on switching to fretless full time are a bit premature, but it may eventually happen as I really love the way fretless bass feels, even with the tonality issues that can arise.