Walt and I were buying seats about 10 rows back behind home plate for the playoffs and it was an incredible ending to a great year we’d had. “Will You Still Love Me” had been a huge hit for us, it made me feel like I was officially in the club, we’d toured for a good couple of years so Walt and I treated ourselves to this piece of history.

Looking back now on it, and I really feel like an idiot to say this but any sports figure, (as well as musician/artist/public figure), understands that it comes with the territory… we were RIPPING into Gary Carter, well, because he was a MET, in OUR house, and playing withing shouting distance. We hammered him pretty good! Any Met for that matter… hey, everybody else was doing it! haaaaaaaaaa

Well, a year or so later, we meet him, at one of our shows. As anybody who knew him will tell you, this is one of the most solid men you could meet. What a great guy… we became pretty tight with him… especially Walt and myself… we stayed in touch… Gary and Sandy’s kids were really little kids back then! I remember being over at their house down in Florida probably around ’89 or so and Gary takes me over to the stairmaster in their gym… he says, “Look! Look!” And they had programmed a message in the screen display to me. I can’t remember what it said but it was awesome… Gary said something to the effect of Sandy liking it there when she worked out. It was very sweet of them.

A couple of years later, another San Diego boy, David Wells, and I got invited to Gary’s charity golf tournament in Florida… that was a blast… I bought these crazy baseball caps somewhere down south, Texas I believe, and they had a snake head on them. Probably about 3 inches of the snake with the head glued on the hat, mouth wide open with fangs… we were really a sight to see! I may have pictures somewhere of us I’ll have to dig out someday.

At any rate, great time… Gary of course was always such a gentleman and really doing so much for his community.

And then, over the years I lost touch with Gary. I guess I moved so many times and was never good at getting new addresses to people… but eventually, we met up again… as many of you know, I went through a serious phase of golf. Spent WAY too much time on it… but that’s how I get… when something interests me like that I tend to go way overboard…

I remember thinking once I was playing in some local club championships in L.A. that the “next level” was to get out on the “Celebrity Players Tour”. That was the bigtime for a small time golfer… to get into something that had some television around it… and the celebrities were all mostly pro athletes. There were some actors and some musicians but it was mostly pro athletes and I’ll tell you what… it was a pretty big rush going out and playing with people like Ivan Lendl, Jim McMahon, etc. I’ll get to that in a second but my first tournament was in San Diego that Stan Humphries hosted. I showed up playing to somewhere around a 4 handicap so I felt like I was not going to embarrass myself… BUT, and any golfer who reads this can attest, this game will REVEAL you…

When I walked in to the hotel and saw all these people I’d grown up idolizing, Johnny Bench, Rollie Fingers, etc. I immediately thought, “Oh boy, now you’ve done it… your EGO has finally put you in a position where you’ve gone too far… you’re going to FRY and they’re all going to see what an imposter you are! These guys can REALLY play golf!”

And then I run into Gary Carter… he smiles that billion dollar smile and grabs me and hugs me… Says, “Sit down Jason… let’s catch up.” I, of course, start launching into the golf and he says, “Hey, first of all… we’re not here known for our golf. We’re known for being some of the best in our field. Relax… we’re not going to win anything anyway.” I knew what he meant… there were a few guys out there that really played… and won most of the time… but then my ego kicks up for a second thinking, “Why COULDN’T I win? Why not?” And I was also surprised that a hall of famer and a guy who was obviously one of the most competitive guys on the planet wasn’t sitting there licking his chops to get out there and try to win. And then I got it… he was *relaxed*, as we should be. That’s the only way you’re going to play well anyway, right?

He then says, “Hey, I’m going to get you paired up with me tomorrow. Since this is your first time you’ll be nervous so I’ll get you with me.” I said, “I won’t be nervous!” and he says, “Yes you will!” haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

So the next morning we go off on hole #1 for the first round. We walk to the tee and Gary is laughing… he says, “Check it out! Clarkie is FREAKING OUT! He’s down there TAKING A LESSON!” haaaaaaaaaaaaa! Dwight Clark, (The Catch), was our 3rd in the group. Gary was really tight with him too… it was Dwight’s first time on the tour as well… he was playing to a 10 handicap at the time so he was down taking a LESSON the morning we were to tee off! Again, if there are any golfers reading this… please chime in! How crazy is it to put anything like a lesson in your head before you go out to play tournament golf! haaaaaaaaaaaaa

So Dwight walks up to the tee and is visibly shaking! I look at him and say, “We can do this man!” and he says, “I hope so…” haaaaaaaa I can remember this so vividly…

So Gary walks up to the tee… they announce him, he puts a pretty nice move on his tee shot and it ends up in the first cut of rough on the right side of the fairway… the short rough… he’s in great shape.

They announce me and I walk up to the tee and think to myself, “This is what they talk about… when the pros say they’re in their first big tournaments and all they want to do is connect with the ball! They just don’t want to whiff!” If I were to think of the day before, thinking about something like that, which I did, I thought, “I haven’t WHIFFED at a golf ball in YEARS! I play to a 4 handicap! That’s ridiculous to think that all you want to do is make contact!” But let me tell you… that’s EXACTLY what was going through my mind… my one swing thought was, “Just take it back sloooowwwwwwwly…” and so I did, kind of… actually, if I were to look at that swing on video I’ll bet I jerked that club back so fast, barely made a turn and swatted at the ball… but, compared to if I was really trying to rip at it… well, the result was I put a real nice little fade on my tee shot starting it out over the left/center of the fairway fading it back into the center…

Here’s where it was a moment in time I’ll never forget… I was so happy to get off the tee, make a great shot and to survive… my caddie was almost jumping out of his skin! But I looked over at Gary and he gave me a real nice look and said, “Nice shot”. Dwight gets up next and swings out of his shoes! He sprays it right, all the way into the next fairway over to the right! The look on his face! I knew it was going to be a long day for him.

So we all started walking down the fairway and Gary is chatting me up… I’m feeling a lot of adrenaline, a little bit of confidence and then we got to our shots. As I said, Gary rolled into the first cut of rough which will always take off a little bit of yardage. But when we got to our balls I saw that I outdrove him! By only a few yards, but I outdrove him! Now here is the moment everything changed… Gary looks at my ball, looks at his, says to me, “Nice shot”, and THAT WAS IT! The niceties were OVER! GAME ON! I had his RESPECT! That was SUCH a rush, and actually is right now that I’m writing this. I got Gary Carter’s respect to the point where he knew he didn’t need to hold my hand any longer!

Now this, as a golfer, is the moment you either grow or wither… I think I parred the first hole, maybe bogeyed it but I think I parred it… the point is I went on a terror… for the next 6 holes… I was on FIRE! Wasn’t birdying any holes but lots of pars. I think I was 2 over for 6 or 7 holes and my caddy says to me, “We’re gonna WIN THIS!” and you know what? I felt like it! I really did… actually, what I felt was that thing you look for in golf, but in life as well… that I *belonged*. I was where I was supposed to be… I was *comfortable* there.

Well, once I got on the back nine of that round, the inexperience caught up to me… I had one bad hole and limped in for the rest of the round. I think I ended up shooting 84 or something that first day… but it was the day I met all these people out on that tour… one of which shows up on my Facebook page, Lee Moore, who ran a bunch of those events. Lee’s been very good to me over the years…

But it all started with Gary making sure we were paired up on day one out there… and it was SO GREAT to reconnect with him…

I played in a handful of events after that but Gary had knee surgery so he was out of the roster for the events I played… I was always hoping I’d get to spend time with him again but we never did.

I ended up hearing about his brain tumors last year and tried to reach out but didn’t have his information. And also, by the time I’d heard he was in such bad shape I had that feeling of not wanting to bother him… that’s the wrong feeling… I should have tried harder… I would have loved to be able to say goodbye to him. He was a good friend to me back in the late 80′s into the 90′s, in fact, I remember when he was with the S.F. Giants and they were playing the Astros and Chicago was in Houston. I went to their practice and Gary broke a bat in batting practice… he trotted over to me and threw it up to me in the stands… I saw people freaking out wanting that bat… I have it in my garage… and I’m going to pull it out and display it.

God Bless you Gary… and your family… now, I will make sure I connect with your wife and kids and do anything I can to be there for them. Thank you for being my friend… until we meet again, Jason

But this day, I saw this guy and he wasn’t a kid… he was probably well into his 40′s and was with a few younger people. I looked at his shirt and it said, “Let me drop EVERYTHING and work on YOUR problem”. I almost DIED laughing! For a couple of reasons… First of all, the statement the guy was making… wearing a shirt that was basically telling the world what HIS world was… a guy who is obviously inconvenienced, a LOT, and irritated at it.

But what REALLY made me pause for a second was thinking, “What if he actually did that?” The reason I thought of it was because over the last few years doing a lot of reading in the personal development realm I’ve come to this conclusion… my natural gifts… my natural ability to play music, will take me to a certain level… my natural ability to try to be kind will take me to a certain level… now I’ve been a pretty fortunate guy… I have been lucky to have some of these gifts passed on to me from my mother and father, my grandparents, and so on.

But the thing that really unleashed me, and I have to admit, it came from a place of selfishness… I wanted MORE. More success, more love, more health… and the truth came at me like a freight train… the ONLY way I was going to have more, was to GIVE more. I had reached a peak… no amount of thinking of myself was going to jettison me to the next level. So I started to experiment with it… and it felt SOOOOOO good… the act of *truly* giving… without expectations, was taking root. I have never felt as good as I do when I do something for someone else with no expectation of what I get in return… and in fact, when I’m able to completely put myself in the other person’s shoes the world is the most amazing place.

And the side benefit, is everything gets better. It’s the weirdest thing… I’ve/we’ve heard this our whole lives… it’s about others, not us… but until that is TRULY, DEEPLY felt, it’s just another concept to ponder. And the more I read about the *why* of doing the right things it gets to clear that it’s not about doing something, performing some act to be recognized… it’s about influencing. People are funny… they’ll go with whatever the environment is… they’ve done studies on it…

Had people start cutting in lines and then EVERYBODY’S doing it. So many times we have no idea how much influence we have on people. And it’s not just those of us that are out in the public eye… it’s everybody… people pick up on what we’re doing, ESPECIALLY the children.

I read the other day where “If the parents are happy, the children are happy.” Think about that for a second… sure, there will be exceptions but what I’ve seen the more the parents in our household work on our relationship and demonstrate to the kids, they’re happy. As Rohn says, “Imagine the impact of how working on ourselves can have on our children over the course of 3 years…” I get it.

So to get back to the guy at the amusement park, I thought, “Wow… imagine if he actually DID that! Dropped EVERYTHING to HELP someone…” and I thought of how many times I’ve done that over the last several years… only from paying attention to the mentors who have been teaching me the benefit of that. How on the most obvious level, it’s going to help someone… and then the next level up, it’s going to help OUR relationship, and then the next level, someone will take notice of that out in the world, and so on, and so on…

My little experiment in the household has told me it works… my move to Nashville was first and foremost for my family… I knew it would provide a closeness between us. Smaller town… close to many cities when I’m on the road I can just pop home in the middle of a tour… it works.

So I must thank that guy for wearing that shirt that day… I really wanted to go up to him and say, “Man, you have NO IDEA how much that would change your life if you did that.” I guess the reason I felt that way was it appeared he was in a position of leadership… possibly with his own kids? And if his message, to his kids, let alone the world as he was wearing his message, was “YOU’RE BOTHERING ME”… wow, what I’ve learned is that there had better be an INCREDIBLE reason to give my kids the message that I don’t have time for them…

And here’s the real honesty… who knows… maybe this dude was completely different… he was just wearing a shirt he thought was funny… but it hit ME… and that’s because I used to be that guy at one time… COMPLETELY absorbed in self. And another bit of honesty? The body of work I’ve produced will show you my self obsession wasn’t about having to create all the time, it was actually coming from a place of just living in a world full of stress to “Keep it all going”. THAT’S what’s changed… coming to terms with that, moving to a new city to adjust… and we are.

There’s my message to myself… keep smalling down… de-cluttering… because the goal? To be able to have choices… that starts with plugging the holes.

As we watched The Foo Fighters collecting one of their 4 awards, Dave Grohl made that great speech that’s circulated around the internet becoming the battle cry for so many people of my generation, and older. I’ll post it here again…

“This award means a lot because it shows that the human element of making music is what’s most important. Singing into a microphone and learning to play an instrument and learning to do your craft, that’s the most important thing for people to do.

“It’s not about being perfect, it’s not about sounding absolutely correct, it’s not about what goes on in a computer; it’s about what goes on in here (heart) and it’s about what goes on in here (head).”

Right after he said that I made a comment on our bus to the guys about how he had pretty much taken out 70 to 80% of the people in that audience. One of the other band members started to explain to me how he wasn’t talking about them and I acknowledged that. I knew exactly who he was talking to… me, and most of my contemporaries…

I just felt it was a situation that would most definitely be misunderstood… and it was. Read the speech again… and this is coming from a guy who performed on the Grammys WITH an act that is NOTHING more than computers, and perfection! Deadmau5!

So right there you know he’s not talking about that… I just LOVE how blown out of proportion it got but as some of us discussed it further, and who is going to think to be politically correct in the middle of accepting 4 awards for a GREAT album that was done the old fashioned way… he was speaking his truth… and believe me, I GOT IT! I’ve been pushing for this for several years now… that’s why I put out these silly little music pieces I do on my Iphone… there is something in the imperfection of it… that’s what GOT those of us from my generation TO THE DANCE. By learning how to do what we do and pulling it off.

Sure, if Dave had said, “You know, for the type of music WE make, this album is a statement of getting back to what got us here. That’s one of the most gratifying feelings in accepting these awards… we did it by recording onto TAPE, not fixing things, other than to go back and record/try again.” (I guess if you really want to get technical we could go back to the days of early Frank Sinatra when they literally had to get it right, in one take! With the orchestra playing along with Frank singing?)

But I’ll take what Dave did… come up with great music to begin with, and then get into a room and play it together. OFF the grid.

Again, I LOVE what Dave said in his acceptance speech and he unlocked the door even more for artists to go back to doing what they do best, providing they’re staying in it, which means practicing, evaluating, and continuing to work on ourselves.

I’ll close with a dirty little secret… actually, it isn’t quite a dirty secret in and of itself but what it’s GOTTEN to is very interesting…

Once one becomes successful, the old guard, record industry, would be HAMMERING to continue that success… keep doing the same thing… Now if you had literally forged new territory as Chicago did with their first run, CTA and onward, and then the Warner Bros. era of David Foster, Peter Cetera, etc., those movements were new… of COURSE you’d continue it… what’s not to continue? It’s YOURS… you invented it.

So by the time I joined the band I was in a very fortunate position… they had done all the heavy lifting to get us to that point… I got to step in at the peak of their recording career… more albums sold of Chicago 17 than any before. And I got to slot right in… and the reason was that I wasn’t trying to reinvent the wheel… I was, (and still am at heart), just a Top 40 musician who got the ultimate Top 40 gig! Listen to the Top 40 in 1985! I just got to walk onstage WITH the band who was on the radio rather than perform it in clubs, (which I have never minded… that’s a large part of who I am), and here we are 26 years later.

But here’s the dirty little secret… the whole landscape has changed… (well, that’s not a secret), but so many bands of our generation have chased after something that doesn’t even exist anymore, for us at least… and that’s getting on radio with new material…

So think about this for a second… if someone is trying to get on the radio they are completely at the mercy of whatever format it is… let’s talk about Country for a second… I know for a fact that when the powers that be hear a song, and I’ve heard recordings that have gotten this response… label people, or radio people will ask, “Has this been tuned?” basically saying they’re questioning it and it won’t stand a chance unless it is! THAT, I’m sorry to say is PATHETIC! Sorry if I’m offending anybody in Nashville or in that world but I can honestly say that I don’t care to be in that club. At last pop music has a *sound* where it actually sounds like they’re going for an *effect*… but man, the beauty in hearing things that *chorus*… rub, in a very musical way… imagine Jimmy Page making sure his guitars were always in tune, and in time… why do you think we’re still listening to that music all these years later? You bet… because it FEELS like something… and those of us who came up learning how to sing without all the help, we learned how to do some of this stuff on purpose… that does it… I’m going to make a video some time this week to show you what I’m talking about…

So there I go… doing what Dave did! I should not generalize and just say that I’m mostly talking about whatever is mainstream… not all of it is the blasphemous assault on vocalists but most of it is. And even in Pop music, some of the people who don’t actually *sound* tuned, are. Programs like Melodyne, used well, make it sound like it isn’t touched… but it is…

My own personal campaign was on the last Chicago Christmas album… the song I arranged and sang, “What Are You Doing New Years Eve?” I think there were 2, maybe 3 small tuning fixes we made… I said to Phil Ramone, “Ok, I’m going to err on the extreme side of conservatism in *fixing*. I’m not saying that to say I don’t want anything changed after I have my say… I’m only saying that as an artistic statement, I’m going to start really heading in the direction of trying my best to get it right at first and then only fixing something that is WAY out. If you hear something later, Phil, and want to fix it, have at it… but I’m going VERY conservative on it.”

He loved it… and as I said, I think there were only a couple of small fixes, maybe 3. Not to compare myself with The Foo Fighters, but that was what Dave was saying in his acceptance speech and it validated my instincts even more. I just knew there was a crowd full of perfectionists and *fixers* in the audience so I knew he’d get bar-b-qued.

Oh, here’s one for you… I made a comment earlier in the night that as much as I love Bruno Mars, I’ve actually gotten a touch sick of the sound… Can’t believe I say that… but I did… part of it is the over saturation of pop radio.

But there he was in the opening of the Grammys and BLEW ALL OF US AWAY! Here’s where it gets interesting… one of the guys in the band told me he raced to hear the studio/album verion of the tune Bruno did on the show and was disappointed! He said it had none of that great band feel, (which means NOT PERFECT!), and it was more of the same… perfect pop. THAT’S what I was meaning when I said I was getting tired of the sound…

But these people are married to the format… not that they mind! That’s all most of them know… they’ve come up that way. And given that we’re in the music business I know many will say to me, “You should be so lucky Jason! I’ll be you’d LOVE to be that *fixed* and *perfect*.” Well, the answer is no… I’m not just starting out… I actually got to go into the control room after singing real vocals back in the 80′s and there is no deeper sense of accomplishment to know that you’ve earned it… you HAD to pull it off… And here’s my prediction… Bruno and any of the modern artists who are GREAT can do what they’re doing… and what I’d love to see is them be smart and save their money… make the millions that, hopefully, will be coming your way so you can call your own shots down the road… it’ll take people like that to MAKE a record that sounds like what he did live on the Grammys to turn it around… ooooops, wait a minute! The girl who SWEPT the Grammys did just that! That’s not a perfect record! It’s just GREAT and honest!

There’s another one of my biggest raves these days… when they say music doesn’t sell? Really? What has Adele sold so far? LOTS… CRAP music doesn’t sell… and my theory, again, is that I don’t care how great the artist is… if you’re fixing your records and sterilizing them there is NO SHELF LIFE. It’s so temporary… you watch and see… it’s the records that have all this personality… that’s what we’ll be playing for years to come…

So in summary? What should people of my generation be doing? Trying to chase after being in a club we have no chance in? It sounds silly anyway… it’s time to get real… as Dave and his band just took 4 Grammys home for doing. If that doesn’t get your/our attention, I don’t know what will.

And from everything I’ve heard about him, I’m sure the negativity he got for his statement made him laugh… he dealt with it in a very eloquent fashion. But then he has nothing to worry about… the war is won for him… he can do it his way, oh yeah, he does!

Alright Dave, I’m a believer and a follower… thanks for making me feel good about my attitudes and direction.

And it just reminds me of the philosophy I subscribe to these days… do something, do your best, share it with those who know you… even if it’s one person… and if it warrants that person telling the next one, great… we’re up and running… if not… all this over emphasis on *Branding*… well, we’d better be pretty focused on what that brand is… and I hope that doesn’t scare anybody… it’ll only scare us when we’re trying to be something different than what we are.

It sounds cliche but I really believe this… authenticity is all we need. This guy who had me click through to play a couple of his tracks… that’s the oldest trick in the book! “Which song do you like best?” Oh, and there’s a button on each one of the songs that has “99c” next to it.

Hey, I’ve been guilty as charged… I’ve been very excited about 2 things… music and fitness and have listened to the *experts* on branding… marketing… you know what? When I’m doing what I should be doing… playing music, working out, for the RIGHT REASONS… I’ve had a pretty good run… it started with THAT. Good old fashioned honest effort. There is no shortcut.

Hey, I take my hat off to the guy who’s putting his money where his mouth is… marketing on Facebook… but it is what it is… NOT GOOD. And hey, good for him if this is the springboard… you know, I have no idea what is going through his mind… so I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt… I’m going to assume he’s completely above board… he’s making music for the love of it… taking his hard earned cash and putting into marketing because he believes in himself.

I guess my only point is that he ended up as a neon sign, to me, asking me to listen to his music. You know how many people ask me to listen to their music? It would take the whole day to get it done. Our own personal time, our only real currency, is precious… to ask for that from somebody is a lot. Sure, I don’t need to listen… I can politely say no… but what I’m getting at here is the realization of what *I* may look like to some when I’m pounding the marketing drum… it’s not comfortable to me…

Yes, I’m going back to basics… my little world is big enough for me. The handful of people who actually care about what I have to say… that’s good enough for me. It’s enough to keep me busy, interested, etc. I’ll take it.

Thank you, Mr. Artist, who reminded me to be subtle. Have a great day! I know I will, because I’m going HOME today! J

Isn’t that what long flights are for? For review? Well, tomorrow’s flight will be that. In the *accidental* consolidating of my online life over the last week or so, I’m starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I’m going to review all the tasks, projects, etc. that are sitting there and put em in order. It’s supposed to be simple, or simplify… all these techniques, apps, gadgets. But again, as in anything, it takes a little bit of preparation, review, etc. It’s amazing having been a pretty impatient guy earlier in my life to finally realize that if I take a little bit of time to prepare… it saves an INCREDIBLE amount of time down the road.

When I look at the Iphoto libraries, the Itunes libraries, my audio drives full of the projects I’ve started, sometimes finished, etc. and see if I’d taken a few moments to label properly… it would save the overwhelming task of figuring out what anything is, at this point.

The impatient me of older days would throw his hands up in the air, bury my head in the sand, and continue the behavior. And then what? One day my kids will be able to have this pile of spaghetti to try and figure out.

But what’s a person to do? Well, how about finding the most important things, starting with those, and take little bites out of the tasks, projects… one at a time. “Eat That Frog” by Brian Tracy was the beginning of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. The bad news? When you’ve accumulated as much data as I have over the years it takes a LONG time to go through it all. The good news? The incredible gems that are lurking… uh oh, did I just identify myself as a HOARDER! haaaaaaaaa

Here’s some truth for you… I TOTALLY AM! If you saw my studio… or my hotel room for that matter… I’m telling you… I border on being a hoarder. Oooooh, that has a little ring to it! Poetic! Maybe I’ll write a song… in fact, I’m going to… and PLEASE, if anybody out there has this affliction, disease… I’m not making fun of you, I’m making fun of ME… because that’s the first step… to admit my addiction!

I’m the HOARDER on the BORDER! Border of what? Or maybe a HOARDER who rents a room in someone’s house? The BOARDER who’s a HOARDER! haaaaaaaaaaaaaa

You see? Just start WRITING! You never know what’s going to come out! Ok, stay tuned… a song is coming… and how on EARTH did I get from being productive at the beginning of this blog to being a hoarder? Oh, that’s right… because there IS A CURE! It’s called ADMITTING the problem and then finding the tool… a book… ooooops, I have 8,000 books, right there, in the corner! haaaaaaaaaaaa HE’S BAAAAAAAACK! The HOARDER on the BORDER.

But today, I was doing Yoga and had all these great thoughts… the thoughts of having started a new round of P90X2, all ready to go right out of the gate at the beginning of the year… making great progress during the first month… only to get hit with one of the worst cases of the flu I’ve had in years…

I did the right thing, rested, other than sweating it up on stage, but at least I nipped it in the bud and it didn’t take me all the way down, losing the voice, etc. Sure, it was harder there for a few days but I got through it.

But as I was doing my yoga workout the thoughts of how we tend to get, when we feel we’ve *lost ground*, gone backwards, were creeping into my head because, frankly, it was hard today! Was it back to square one? Nope but it was cranking it back up, which takes a minute.

And then I realized, I was back in it! And remembered something I used to think about a lot when I was trying to get my fitness and health back… whenever I’d *decide* to improve, if I’d get sick I realized there will be a time when I won’t be able to any longer. It made me appreciate the *ability*, the *opportunity*. And now when we keep getting our reminders of how temporary this all is, while we’re here… while we have the chance… what am I going to do with it? Focus on what I *didn’t* do? Didn’t follow through on? Man, it gets louder and louder the older I get, how much time is wasted on looking *back*. Sure, let me reflect but TAKE ACTION.

Today, I turned it around… with the flick of a switch. Put the DVD in, pressed play and it’s forward motion again. I have the chance, to do it all over again, starting today.

The thought of what I *didn’t* do, or accomplish is gone. Today is a win. I remember a period, probably close to 10 years ago… hitting 40 years old when I used to think of the time I’d wasted… the opportunities I’d squandered… the years I wasn’t planning enough for the future… and used to say to myself, “Man, if I could do it all over again…” and the lightbulb went off… “I CAN, starting today… I can save a bit more, (or at all… haaaaaa), I can start taking better care of myself, today. I can start working at being a better parent, husband, brother, friend, today.

Maybe I lost a few steps this week… but I don’t allow myself to have the pity party for too long… zero benefit in that… nope… I realize, I can start fresh today… clean slate… and it’s amazing how that momentum catches fire, and quickly. So much more than people even realize. I remember… it’s easy to stay stuck focusing on what DIDN’T go right… but all it takes it the tiniest spark… putting away 1% of the paycheck… or even half of that… SOMETHING… that gets the ball rolling… and if anybody thinks they can’t start with something, it’s called a *sacrifice*. It’s not so much the amount, it’s the motion… forward.

Ah yes, if I could do it all over again… what a great realization… I can… until the day they bury me, I have a chance… just about all of us do.

Actually wrote out some goals a few days ago… hadn’t done that in Dec., which I had last year… just basically was a bit behind. Funny how last year I came screaming into the new year as prepared and focused as I’d been… set goals for the first time in my life, truly… paid attention to them, accomplished some I thought would take me 5 years, didn’t accomplish some I thought would be easy…

Basically, as my Facebook page got wickedly focused, the noise seemed to drop down to almost a whisper… I can’t tell you how much I love not seeing a billion things flying at me left and right… now I need to follow that up with saying it’s not that what people are doing and saying aren’t important to me but the fact I had started a Facebook account, really, to be able to reach out to any and everybody who is interested, it just got out of hand.

There is a connection that’s lost though… it was easier for some to stay connected, in touch… but I must say, the benefits of smalling down, focusing on what my world truly is, is paying huge dividends.

The conclusion I’ve come to in looking at the last couple years and listening to thought leaders like Seth Godin is this… I’m ALL about sharing… my life, my music, my experiences… when I do that authentically and in a way that just wants to help, it’s amazing how much my life is taken care of and goes smoothly… the minute anything I do is for any reason other than just being of service, the work suffers and everybody is beat over the head, to death, with what most of what’s going on on the internet is doing…

So much of the noise is one of a few things to me… selling something, arguing about things that a lot of people aren’t even really researching enough to have a dog in the fight… (by the way, I’m guilty as charged on both of those counts)

You see, for me, there are 2 things that are absolutely disgusting that are going on, and again, I’ve been guilty of both things… when a recording artist is saying, “BUY MY C.D.!!!!! LIKE ME!!!! BUY MY C.D.!!!!!! BUY MY C.D.!!!!” I don’t know about you but I don’t think I’ve ever bought a c.d. that way… I don’t think it works…

Same thing for hawking any kind of product… personally, I’ve been involved in the fitness industry and it’s the same thing when I read people saying, “Go to my site… look at my products… sign up as a distributor and get 25% off…” There’s nothing wrong with the c.d.’s or the fitness products… but you see, there is no *personal* connection to it. It’s just noise. It’s not working.

What Godin says, and I couldn’t agree more with, is we must be “Remarkable”. And that just means, simply, to do something that someone will make a “remark” about, which means *sharing* it… telling someone else… if I make great music, someone is going to tell someone about it… I don’t need to yell at you “BUY MY C.D.!!!!!!”

Same thing with P90X2… yes, I worked hard to appear in it… so I have something to share… it’s not for everybody, but it’s for some… and I just share what my life is.

Godin also had a GREAT phrase… “It’s not about getting rich quick… it’s getting rich SLOW…” which means we must work… we must do what we love, FOR THE LOVE OF IT, FIRST… and then, if we’re supposed to be successful, we will be… plain and simple.

He goes on to say, “If you try something and nobody is making any *remarks*, scrap it. On to the next thing.”

Well, the more I think of it, the more I ask myself a simple question… what is it I feel I’m pretty good at… I love to play, sing and write music and when I actually put the work into it, I think I have a good chance to take it a little further… and here’s another piece of insight I’ve had recently… it’s so easy for those of us who’ve had great runs… great careers to fool ourselves… I thought for many years that I was *practicing*, I mean come on… I’m on the road every year, usually over 100 concerts a year… so I’m staying in it, aren’t I?

Well, without study and practice guess what happens? Bad habits… so if that resonates with ANYBODY, that’s my experience… it’s an easy trap to fall into… the “I’m playing all the time… singing all the time… I’m putting my hours in.” Well, I”m here to tell you the bad habits will accumulate to where you wake up one day thinking maybe you’re on your way out… as I had over the last couple years… true story…

But I went to get help… the doctor first… found out I didn’t have any damage… and then the vocal coach… again, no damage, just some real bad habits I’d developed… the headset mic didn’t help, by the way…

So now, I’ve actually experienced that old feeling within the last 6 months of not struggling as much… I’m on a mission… I don’t want to look back and realize I could have done something about it.

And the one piece of advice Seth Godin said to anybody who wants to grow… wants to see how far they can go… he said start a blog and do it DAILY. I went and looked at his and it’s classic… it’s what anybody who is a great communicator says… BREVITY. That, is something I’m going to work on.

To keep it simple… obviously, this post is NOT brief… but I just wanted to share what’s on my mind.

In a nutshell… I love to play music, love to exercise… I had a NASTY flu that took me down for over a week… and that was about 30 days into a round of P90X2 that I was really looking forward to… so what… I pick up where I left off… and I’ll share the journey… I won’t yell at people to exercise… won’t tell them to buy from me… I don’t need to… when I’m doing the right thing(s), people ask, they respond… and the greatest feeling in the world is to hear from all the good folks that tell me some music I was lucky enough to have been a part of helped them through some tough times… or the fact I put myself out there physically helped inspire a lot of folks to change their lives…

So that’s my existence… share my life… it’s what makes me feel happy… thanks for listening.

It’s funny but ever since I joined Chicago back in 1985 the questions always come up and certainly during the awards show(s). “Are you going?” I’ve always said, “Not unless I was up for something.” I have no desire to just go *hang out* and be *around* all the action. I love seeing people’s hard work pay off for them… Sure, have the last decade or so had some acts I’ve found questionable? Sure, but who am I? I’m a guy who is turning 50 in April so I’m part of the *oldster* crowd. At least in terms of what’s *hip*.

Funny how all through my younger years in San Diego, I was never in the hip bands… well, for one minute “Cocoa Blue” was starting to rise in the ranks but I went right out of that back into something that any of my school friends wouldn’t have thought was *cool*. A top 40 band playing at the Hilton Hotel. We played all kinds of music, which is what I wanted to do anyway. I chose the path of music, first. Not that my friends hadn’t… they chose the *music* that was for them… but I guess there was always this wise old soul in me (the wise part is only a figure of speech!), to where I wanted to play the most challenging music, the most diverse, etc.

And it’s funny now to hear from some of my friends I grew up with… my gig at the Hilton with “The People Movers” was now being revealed as somewhat of a *guilty pleasure* to a handful of my friends… who’d sneak in to see me/us. I was 16! haaaaaa

But that was my college education… playing all the music, diversity, being willing to try anything… adapt, go do it when I didn’t feel like it, (which wasn’t too often… no matter how bad I’d feel, music would always win over… the ultimate medicine).

But I remember while I was doing it I wasn’t part of the cool crowd of kids my age. I was kind of a square playing in a hotel bar with a bunch of older people coming in to pick up on each other… lots of divorcees… ah, the life!

And then I went to L.A. Tried to play in a few *cool* bands… we weren’t really, just trying to be… trying to dress and act the part, playing our best attempt at *new wave* music, playing “Madame Wong’s West” doing *showcases*. Haaaa! For whom? Those were the days! Getting in line, with all the others in L.A. trying to do what was current… but I always felt like kind of a fraud…

But you know what? The industry was SO on to us! They can smell it a mile away… the frauds…

So I just kept doing my thing… kept playing, (starting to sing more, and write), the music that appealed to me… the pop/R&B stuff. Again, the *cool* stuff was all that *new wave* stuff that they were playing on KROQ. Even dabbled for a second in a band that was shooting for that, “Wolf and Wolf”, Peter Wolf’s band… which planted the seed for Peter to eventually produce Chicago years later…

I’ve got some photos of the show we did in ’82… Wolf and Wolf opening for the Rolling Stones in Vienna. GREAT time… actually, it was Wolf and Wolf, J. Geils Band, (so I got to see the 2 Peter Wolf’s meet for the first time), and The Stones.

I’ll put those photos out at some point to show you my stupid haircut I got. SO not me, but I tried! It was “Flock of Seagulls” AFTER TAXES!

I came back to L.A., kept working on what I liked and within a few years, all that hard work paid off… Chicago came a knockin and I was seasoned. All the nights at the Hilton… working with my pop friends/writers… if I had stayed in the *cool* crowd I wouldn’t have gotten the opportunity I had. PLUS, and here’s a big one… I’ve realized that the gig with Chicago gave me a spot in a legendary group but there wasn’t too much exposure… plus, as the guys in the band tell me, THEY TOO were never really considered the *cool crowd*, at least not by the industry… there is your answer to not being in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

But you know what? It’s the key ingredient, in my opinion, of what’s kept the group around for as long as it has… the fact it’s really a logo… bigger than any individual… MTV tried to threaten that by creating visual stars but ultimately, MTV was a fad, right? As far as an actual music barometer? And so many of those acts have come and gone… fallen by the wayside.

So here we are, 2012, and there are only a handful left… to see The Beachboys reunited was pure magic the other night… I say that because I have a pretty rich history with them… actually Chicago does in general… they put together a package in the 70′s that was one of the biggest tours of the year.

We put one together with them in ’89? ’90? that again was one of the biggest tours of the year. Beachboys had a huge hit record, “Kokomo”, and Chicago had a huge hit record, “Look Away”, which put us out there on 1 of the 2 biggest tours I’ve experienced during my years with Chicago.

And as we were touring, everybody was saying, “Man, if Brian was out here it would be off the charts!” He did show up for a couple gigs… Hollywood Bowl and I believe a gig at Nassau Colosseum. I remember a lot of inner conflicts within the group and acknowledged my gratitude once again to be in a group that got along pretty well.

Then over the years, I saw The Beach Boys start to splinter off into 2 different groups… sure, I understand… people change… we go in different directions but the older I get, the more I see how, if it’s possible, to mend the fences, while we have time…

Chicago toured with Brian Wilson at the end of 2010 in Australia and I’ve written about it… Brian would be sitting literally 20 yards from me during our set on the side of the stage… he wanted to hear us, every night. Do you know what that meant to me? I took that experience in as one of the greatest pieces of validation I’ve ever gotten. Brian wanted to be there, to be close… and it pumped me up. I got to sing “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” with them a couple times during that tour.

And all of us out there on the road were thinking the same thing… “Man, here he is TEARING it up… THIS is the Beach Boys! How can’t they put this all together?” And there they were… on the Grammys… you know what that says to me? It confirms everything I’m working on these days… it’s for the next generation…

I know this is a long winded, round about way to get back to the Grammys but here it is… I’ve been in an industry where we had all created lives, lifestyles, built families, careers… so it’s not so easy to just throw caution to the wind and do exactly what you want… a lot is riding on decisions, especially creatively… so there is so much of an emphasis on monetizing… hey, I get it… it’s like any other job… anybody out there… pick your vocation… look at your life… look at who’s depending on you… and then come up with some crazy idea that rolls the dice… you just don’t do that… it’s called calculated risks…

But here’s what I’ve been seeing… as the record industry has kept imploding there are so many people chasing after what once was… and it’s gone… trying to be *modern*. This is so simple… remember who we are… go back to find what it is that gave us our successes… build on that… fundamentals…

If the production of the Grammys was to earn income, and of course it is, guess what the hidden prize was? The artists that performed sent the message in a subliminal way to MOST of the people who were watching, all the kids who don’t know who Paul McCartney is… it was a night that had an incredible balance of the REAL stuff… I mean look at what swept… Adele and the Foo fighters! I remember when the Foo Fighters started their record and Drew told me Dave was going back to what brought them to the dance… tape and no FIXING. I was so happy to hear that. And I was A/Bing the new album to the last few and sure, the last few that were fixed had that perfect thing about the grooves… still great, but listen to the latest one… it’s a trend… you watch and see!

Because again, what I love about this moment in time is we’re still here… and so are you… anybody reading this, you’re still on this planet which means you have a chance… a chance to change and for me, it’s all about going back to the beginning to find the fundamentals… the core of who we are… that may have gotten compromised over the years by and industry… well guess what? The rules are no more! It’s a free for all! Do you see how great that is? No, you’re not going to get it overnight… none of us did anyway… going back to the bands being put together to capitalize on whatever the fad was back in the early 80′s. Where are those bands? It doesn’t work. We need to work.

So ultimately, what Dave Grohl said in their acceptance speech… it’s not about being perfect… it’s about putting it down, honestly, and that takes some work.

I’m very motivated by the Grammys the other night. I could care less if I ever won one… seriously… I resigned myself years ago when I won the lottery of getting asked to join Chicago as one of their lead singers… “You have 2 choices Jason… do you want something that reflects who you are… a guy who likes to be involved in a team… something that may not be the flavor of the moment but will last… or do you want a big splash?”

I see now that my years in Chicago have prepared me for the next phase, mentorship… helping the next generation(s). And the Grammys had a LOT of that going on the other night. Made me proud to be in this club again.

But the title of this post is about how I feel today… today is the first day I haven’t had the deep cough plaguing me. Sure, there are remnants of it but I’ve finally gotten over the hump… I feel good today… the achiness has finally gone away…

Amazing how we take it for granted, actually, let me speak for myself… how *I* take it for granted when my health is good. It’s when it’s taken away from me I gain the perspective of asking myself why I don’t squeeze every ounce out of life, daily. Does that seem lofty? Unobtainable? Well, I don’t know about anybody else but these are the thoughts and feelings I have these days.

Here’s another one, Whitney Houston… gone. She doesn’t even have a chance anymore… so tragic. I remember when my career started and so did hers. She was meteoric… mine was slow and steady. I thought I wanted to be a superstar when I was young and now I see I’ve gotten just as much as I could handle.

Whenever I see the absurdly talented, or wealthy, when it comes too early and fast, and see the struggle that comes with it I say to myself, “I don’t want to be that good! Let me have a modicum of talent but let me live a full life as well. Let me go play golf or go to the movies, or park with my family, and fly under the radar.”

And sure, there are times when I wish it was easier… but there’s nothing like working for something, earning it. I realize if I had too much, too soon, I pretty much guarantee I would have gone all the way down the tubes. Again, I’ve gotten just about as much as I can handle. I’m comfortable with the way things have played themselves out.

But today, my friends… I feel like a billion dollars… tomorrow, I’ll jump right back into my round of P90X2… get a week of where I left off, phase 1… and then jump into Phase 2… what a trip that’s going to be to work out to ME! I’ve been hearing reports of the “Shoulders and Arms” workout and people tell me they laugh a lot while they’re working out listening to us going off… yes, this is 30 YEARS of a friendship that comes pouring out in that workout. Tony Horton and myself… barely have to say a word and the other one knows what’s coming… that’s what a long time friendship will yield.

And that’s probably a good segue to go into the whole Facebook thing… what a great thing it’s been to connect with friends on Facebook. I mean, geez, we stoked up the old band, Cocoa Blue, to record out setlist from 1977! That should be finished fairly soon… we’ll get it out to you!

And now I’ve consolidated everything down to my 1 Facebook page… just so everybody knows… I created a new personal profile but only to check into the groups I/we had started for fitness… I’m not accepting friend requests because I’m rarely into that profile…

You see that was always the issue… my Facebook page I do everything from now I have to log into and if I want to go into the profile, I have to log out of the page, log back into the profile, log back out to get back to the page… you get the idea.

If anybody is seeing the profile since it’s connected to a handful of people I connected with, only to be able to access the groups, please don’t take it personal that I don’t respond and don’t add as a friend. My Facebook presence is on the page…

www.facebook.com/jason.scheff

At any rate… it’s good to feel good again. I missed it, terribly… luckily my voice didn’t go down… I jumped on getting the proper rest and care immediately… so I’m good to go.

Thanks for being here friends! Talk to you soon, Jason

And then, it becomes apparent, wow, I’m actually breathing… do you hear that? That silence filling in the gaps of all that noise that was going on? Whoa… as Darin Hardy says, “Just turn it off”. Oh NO! What would happen if I turn that television off? My 6 hour a day Facebook habit! WHOA!!!! Amazing how when our minds wake up, the incredible things waiting to come out of it. Or sometimes not so incredible things… “Idle time”… that kind of thing? That’s why it’s important to search out and seek the good stuff… it’s all around us, just like all the crazy stuff is.

So here’s how it happened… I was poking around, and have been for quite some time, on how to manage 8 billion Facebook groups, pages, my profile, actually, there had been about 3 of those at one time trying to figure it all out… and the reality is that I started a Facebook profile/page/website, whatever you’d want to call it at first… none of us knew, right? It was designed for college students to stay connected. But the fact it was *organized* made it eclipse Myspace virtually overnight.

Myspace had become a big neon sign yelling at us at every turn, “BUY MY CD! LISTEN TO MY MUSIC! ADD ME! LIKE ME!!” Well, in the new frontier here, all the *experts*, (meaning people who are guessing like everyone else because nobody knows), were saying it’s about *branding*. What does THAT mean? I guess I could look no further than the iconic logo of the band Chicago to see what branding means but personally? What does it mean? So we all tried… those of us that are artists…

And I started to see something that was really turning me off… EVERYBODY was screaming and yelling to get our attention, and yes, I’m one of em… I bought it for a while… and it kept getting louder and louder… MOST of what I was hearing was CRAP! And I’m sure there are plenty of people who feel the same about MY crap!

And we got to see the few, the REAL obnoxious making headway… doing something that gained traction and that suddenly became the benchmark. The thing all the experts were confirming was the right way to go. All of this kept building in me, in a negative way, because the *substance* was missing. Now I should make one disclaimer here to say that not everything out there gaining traction is bad, for me… let me make that distinction as well… I’m only speaking for me… speaking as an artist looking at where I’m headed… what I want to do next.

Funny how the things that kept resonating for me were concepts like, “If you don’t spend every penny you make and save some, there will come a day when all the music you make will be by choice… and it won’t matter whether you sell it or not… you will be a true artist which is to do what you want.”

That started lighting me up… changed the way I make music… today… having a vision isn’t all about *being there*. It’s about knowing *where* you’re going. Having a plan.

So getting back to the Facebook thing… I was really looking for a way to stay connected… listening to all the advice of the experts in how to stay *out there* and connected. Tweeting, status update, branding, etc. OVERWHELMING!

I’ve read recently where some folks feel that we’re going to burn out on knowing EVERYTHING about EVERYBODY at ALL TIMES. That resonates deeply with me because of this…

When I started my Facebook page I wanted to stay connected with friends and fans which I really actually consider to be one and the same in many ways. I discovered that it was easy to find old buddies… hey, we even put Cocoa Blue back together and that was because of Facebook!

But I hit that magic 5,000 *friend* mark. And then the private messages started coming…”Hey, how come you don’t add me as a friend?” The message was getting muddled. It had nothing to do with whether I wanted them or not, it was a limitation…

So then I started looking for ways to avoid that and found ways to *hide* my profile, but some still found a way to find it and friend request me, which I had no idea because it was numbering into the thousands.

I started a fan page… about 1,600 people *fan*’d it, then it turned into *like*ing it. I tried to go over there and make that my stomping ground but it didn’t quite have the energy of the profile. I guess since I’d built up that profile, well, WE’D built up the profile, all the random bumping into each other was within that profile.

I kept trying to make it work and it was keeping my brain in a constant state of *unfinished business*. And then I searched about 4 or 5 days ago, again, on if there was a way to consolidate, and the day had come.

Facebook figured out that so many artists had started Facebook accounts with a *Page* focus but as a profile. I don’t even remember an option at first to make it a page, although I’m sure it was there… I was in a hurry like everybody else…

In the past it would have been to try and get a message to all 5,000 friends to go over to this new page, which rarely worked… still keep going back to the profile dealing with mounting friend requests, private messages… and the REAL kicker, (that I didn’t even notice until I made this switch the other day), was that the NEWS FEED was absolutely out of control. Let alone if you allow people to send you *gifts*, *game playing invitations*. I remember when I allowed all of that to hit my wall, it was nothing but a bunch of hearts, games, quizzes, etc. Believe me, in and of itself I really appreciate the thoughts, I do. I know it’s coming from a good place…

But I had no idea, until about 4 days ago, how much noise that is. But what really prompted me to make the move was to read this…

(From Facebook’s Help pages)
“Since profiles are meant for individual people, they aren’t suited to meet your business needs. Pages offer more robust features for organizations, businesses, brands, and public figures, which you can learn more about here.

Further, maintaining a profile for anything other than an individual person is a violation of Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. If you don’t convert your profile to a Page, you risk permanently losing access to the profile and all of your content.”

Well, there I had it. That was all I needed to pull the trigger. It made perfect sense. I didn’t start my Facebook experience that way a lot of people do, to be private, selective, etc. I wanted it to be open to any and all… so I made the change.

What I didn’t realize was that once I did it I had no profile to access the groups I’d created or had been invited to, and there are several, and I love em. That felt like it had the potential of making a statement that I walk away from all of it… far from the truth. I immediately started thinking of what to do… create another profile, (which I did). And then the same confusion started again in my head… “Now I have to log out each time I want to go into the profile?”

But this amazing thing started happening… the noise was gone… now PLEASE hear me loud and clear… I don’t want ANYBODY to feel I’m calling them noise or I don’t want to hear from them… it’s just *cumulative*. The sheer VOLUME of 5,000 people going back and forth… the political bickering, the BUY MY CD! LIKE ME! And it was REALLY showing me what it must be like COMING FROM ME TOO!

This is an incredible reflective period for me. Lots of incredible changes going on with the way I look at my creativity. I’m really going back to a small town, small minded ethic. Get to work… work on yourself, daily… sure, share that but the rest falls into place. Enough of the quick hit, the quick fix… it’s perpetuating the madness for me.

Now for some who may think I’ve really pulled away… you all know where to find me… in fact I’ll leave it here so there is no mistake…

If you need to email me, the address is coachjasonscheff@gmail.com. I’ll do my best to respond but this is a wonderful moment of clarity for me. I’m LOVING the peace and quiet of not being tethered to Facebook right now.

And the real eye opener for me is that all the *friends* that were on my profile have been converted to *likes* on my page but the activity has gone WAY down once it was converted… I think this is probably a much better barometer of what my world really looks like, and I have to say, I really dig it.

I’m almost 50… April 16th will be my 50th birthday and I just want to know… I want to know who I am, who my friends are, and move forward.

The air just got incredibly easier to breathe. I’m going back to the basics baby. My Facebook page…

www.facebook.com/jason.scheff

and my fitness page…

http://www.facebook.com/teamscheffyfitness

although sometimes I’m tempted to roll that into the Jason Scheff page as well. You never know.

And for those who aren’t on Facebook, my blog, which I’m writing this message to you on, I will be creating most of my content in anyway… and that’s going to simplify.

Thanks for bearing with me… it’s amazing how small the world just got, my world… and I love it! Jason