Neil Schon, and the Naked Man

I just got back from an awesome trip to Michigan.. I had a lot of fun and great food with my friends and family, and thats what I think is important in life.. hahaha...

So I work at a major guitar manufacturing company, and with this job, come some perks that you just don't get in most other industries.. Occasionally I will meet some great recording artists, or rockstars if you prefer, and sometimes they just take you by surprise..

It happened on a seemingly normal day at work.. I was walking to the buffing room, to take some scratches out of the top of the guitar that I was working on. Mr. Awesome (a nickname I secretly gave to Mike, because he is completely full of himself) tells me Neil Schon is coming in to work today.. For those of you that don't know, he is the lead guitar player for a band called Journey, perhaps you've heard of them. Anyhoo, I thought Id try to get a laugh out of a couple people, so I screamed at the top of my lungs, DOOONT STOP BELIEEEVING, and went straight into the guitar solo.. there were no strings on the guitar I was holding, so I just pretended to play really fast, and was singing out the notes. I closed my eyes.. I was really rocking out.. Upon opening my eyes, I realized nobody was really laughing... My joke failed. Except Austin had this goofy grin on his face and kind of signaled behind me... There was Neil Schon and Paul Smith (PRS) standing right behind me.. Mr. Schon was kind of laughing (I don't know if he actually thought it was funny, or was just trying to prevent awkwardness..) but I have never gotten a death glare in my life as intense as the one Paul was giving me.. Oh well.

Some of you might remember me talking about the PRS Experience a few months back, and how I really didn't want to work it. There was this guy there, Don Alder, who is a really awesome guitar player, and a very nice guy (he told me I was good at guitar, and gave me some pointers, so I like the guy.) He was doing some demo's of our guitars on this stage we had set up in the acoustics department, and a little later he had to play a gig on the main stage outside. I was in my office fixing up his guitar, changing strings and whatnot, and he said something to me.. Im deaf in one ear, so I didn't quite hear what he said, but I heard the door close and I thought everyone walked out.. When I turn around, standing about 10 feet to my right is a stark naked Don Alder.. Apparently he had asked me if its alright to change his clothes in my office, so when I didn't respond, he just did it.. I didn't quite know what to do, so I just turned around sat in my chair and laughed..

I just wanted to share these stories with you, because every time I think about them, I can't help but laugh a little bit... Have a good week!!

God bless you