I fell in love with Carrolls writing when it was released.
He wrote Basketball Diaries when he was sixteen.
It was released when I was 14,15.
And Carrol was ten years older. He would have been 25
when it was released. His album Catholic Boy.
His music was discovered by Keith Richards
in a backstreet bar. Richards is present in some of the songs.
But it was Carrolls Poetry that was genuine to me striped down
with just his voice. It was his readings.
I traveled for fifteen years from around ’76
to ’93. I traveled. With my guitar. From piano to piano. From NY, LA, SF,
Seattle, DC.I would show up at back street bars at after parties and get up on
the stage. I would sit at the ocean and play. And now for some reason
I can’t play piano or guitar. I haven’t quite given up. But its difficult.
But the other day when I nearly decided to stop – it was to be my proof that I
was there once. That I was good… this good. The other day I said inside Ok
and let go, but then I walked over and opened the Fender case and began
again the same old damn chord changes I can’t get past. Just over and over.
Nothing more than that. But I held it.
