I didn't grow

up wanting to be a newspaper man, which is good because some would say

I still haven't made it.

And those people

are mean with lots of time on their hands.

I didn't want

to be an astronaut or a cowboy and I didn't want to be a fireman or a

policeman either.

I wanted to

be a rock star.

I even asked

Santa for a "disco suit" when I was 5 years old. I must have

known what I was talking about then, but I have no idea now. Was I asking

for a leisure suit or did I want to look like the people on "Solid

Gold" and "American Bandstand?" The world may never know.

Rock music

played a major role in my life and it still does. (As I write this column,

I'm listening to the new U2 album (which is incredible, by the way)).

My next door neighbor gave me several Kiss albums when I was 6 or 7. I

think he was upgrading to eight track and had no use for them anymore.

A friend of my mother's also gave me Grateful Dead 45s, which I spun on

my Ernie and Bert record player before they mysteriously disappeared.

I guess someone didn't like a first grader singing "Casey Jones."

I also listened

to WBCN in Boston every day with my parents in the morning before school.

The station played a lot of classic rock: Led Zeppelin, AC-DC, Boston,

etc., and eventually those artists and their albums became some of my

favorites as well.

The next big

musical influence for me was Prince's "Purple Rain." It was

the first album, besides Michael Jackson's "Thriller," that

I owned. To this day I've never seen the movie (it was rated R and I was

9) but I used to run around playing air guitar to "Let's Go Crazy"

on a tennis racket. I was also beginning to watch a new channel on our

brand new cable system, MTV. I watched all the videos (That's right, MTV

used to play videos 24 hours a day) which were just ads for all types

of music and I was probably never the same again.

I wanted to

be Steven Tyler singing with Run-DMC. I wanted to be able to play the

guitar like Eric Clapton, get the girls like Bon Jovi and fight for my

right to party like the Beastie Boys. Rock music was loud. It was fun

and it was glamorous. These people were getting paid for playing songs

around the country and getting on television. It sounded great to me.

It still does.

My first concert

was U2 at the Boston Garden. The light system went down temporarily the

night before and the band had to play under the same lights that the Celtics

played under during their games. The night that my father and I went to

the show, they showed us what it looked like and it was amazing. Thousands

and thousands of people all united and focused on the band and the music.

U2 closed with "Pride (In The Name of Love)" as their encore

that night and the crowd continued to sing as they exited the arena.

That is a pretty

heavy image for a youngster. I trembled underneath my goose bumps at that

connection with so many people and it has only gotten better as the years

have progressed. I have seen Bono and the boys four other times since

then, and when 80,000 people sing along with that song I get teary-eyed.

I get that way because I do believe rock and roll music can save the world.

If you can have millions of people riding that same vibe, sharing that

experience and believing that together they can make the world a better

place, it has to work sometime, doesn't it?

Since that

first concert when I was 11, I have seen everybody from The Everly Brothers

to Marilyn Manson. I keep all my ticket stubs and each concert has a particular

memory for me. I saw Nirvana at the Omni five months before Kurt Cobain

committed suicide, I saw Aerosmith for free at its taping of "Dream

On" for the MTV 10th anniversary celebration. I was one of about

80 people who saw The Lemonheads play at UGA a few years back and Evan

Dando did a 30-minute acoustic set.

I've also seen

R.E.M., Arlo Guthrie, The Grateful Dead, Nine Inch Nails, and Limp Bizkit

among many, many others.

I like the

way the music sounds, I like the way the stage looks and I like the way

it makes me feel. I like having an experience that I can share with my

friends and also with the people there. I've had 30-minute conversations

with complete strangers about the Kid Rock set at Music Midtown.

Maybe someday

I'll put out an album, make a video and go on tour. Maybe I'll influence

someone through the power of rock 'n' roll. Until then, I'll write this

column and just live a rock 'n' roll life-style.

Good night,

Fayette County!

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