The Sometimes Johnny/Lost Dog Experience

Well that's the date as close as I can remember till I pull out some old artifacts which are currently buried in a closet.

Sometimes Johnny/Lost Dog was the first live performing band I was ever in. I had some of my greatest and worst music related memories with that band.

When I first moved to Adam's I had yet to see any live music in the area when I saw a poster for this band called Sometimes Johnny playing at a dirt bag sleaze owned establishment called Michael's Landing. I didn't know at the time that Michael's Landing was a dirt bag sleaze owned establishment; that came later and is another story.

So I talk Dana into going and I really enjoyed the band. So much that I went up and talked to them about how good I thought they were. I've never been one to shy away from letting anyone know what I think.

I talked to the bass player Mike and told him I loved what he did and what the band did. He told me he was glad I got to see them because this would be their last show. Wow.

He said he was going to be starting another band with the drummer and he was going to play guitar and wanted another guitar player and a bass player. Dana pipes up and tells him I'm a bass player! Thanks. I wasn't ready for that!

An interesting note is that the drummer's name was Johnny. The bands name was Sometimes Johnny because sometimes Johnny would show up, and sometimes Johnny would not.

So he asks for my number and I give it to him and tell him I'm probably not good enough yet, blah blah.

And that was that.

Went home and got back to life.

A couple months later the phone rings and it's Mike. He's got everything together for his next band but still needs a bass player and would I like to try out?

Scary.

But I've always overcome fears by tackling them head on so I agreed.

A date was set and I went to audition. I was a basket case and a half that whole day.

I didn't know what the heck we would be playing or anything.

I get there and it's Mike and Johnny, and a tall blonde guitar player also named Scott.

Mike keeps it smart and just has us run through some blues and a couple classic rock tunes everybody knew and says "yeah, you're in if you want it". I was happy as hell.

We went on to learn a bunch of great songs that were classic rock tunes, new & popular tunes at the time, everything from blues to Alice in Chains, Kiss, Tonic, The Wallflowers, Matchbox 20 and on and on.

We had a hell of a time coming up with a name, so for the first time out we were just going to still be Sometimes Johnny. That's even what got printed on the posters for our first show which was an ABATE (again motorcycle related if you're keeping track of other stories) party.

Just before this show I was reading a newspaper (remember those?) and saw an ad that said "Lost Dog" and I thought "hey!". Everybody else thought it was cool and away we went.

That show was a first for a lot of things. My first public performance, the first time my brother Randy & sister Toni ever saw me play, and when I first realized that I was a decent bass player. And a hell of a character.

I had never played in front of anyone before and the live audience energized the crap out of me!

I was playing my ass off and being a dancing fool at the same time. Never had so much fun playing!

After that I found out Mike was pretty smart in terms of engaging a crowd. He was the lead singer but a bit on the subdued and reserved side. He saw the benefit of my stage energy and after that show put me in the center of the stage so the spot light was off him and left the entertaining to me. We had one show where someone asked Mike if he was sure they wanted the bass player with no mic in the center of the stage and he said something like "yeah, just watch what happens".

We had some real rockstar moments in that band in the few shows we did before I found out that as smart as he was, Mike was also a pompous ass.

In the course of regular events, a situation occurred within which it came to his attention that I was on parole at the time. At that time I was just getting started and it was a heavily guarded secret.

So when he finds out he kicks me out of the band. Said I was a great bass player and could play with anyone anywhere, but Lost Dog just couldn't have me in the band. I tried being an ass and saying Lost Dog couldn't have the name I came up with, but he used in anyway. Rock-N-Roll history repeating itself on the small stage.

Judgmental little punk.

He replaced me with a guitar player posing as a bass player and Lost Dog self-destructed not long after that.

And after that every time I saw him I wanted to beat him senseless cause he was such a jerk. He'd say hi, but all snobby like, like he was way too good for me.

I learned a lot in that band about performing and band politics and all of that.

I also got one other cool thing out of it.

When we were talking about writing our own music a song title came up: Gideon's Radio.

Nothing ever got done with it, I even forgot about it. Then my current band was looking for a name and I just scribbled down any name I could think of and somehow "Gideon's Radio" ended up on my list.

It also ended up being the one we as a band could agree to use.

It wasn't till later that I realized where I had gotten that name from.

So in the end, he took Lost Dog and I took Gideon's Radio.

Revenge be mine!