Ride The Wave Or Get Crushed By It | What Fender Taught Me About Life

本站添加: 2026-06-01

[00:00:08]Ride the wave without letting the wave ride you.

[00:00:14]Now, this is an important this is an important thing in life, man. I saw somebody once in one of the comments said that I walk at a mil military pace. Maybe that's so, man. And look, a as I'm older now, right? Um I find that I can't I have a hard time moving slow. If I go somewhere and I need and I, you know, if I'm walking with my family or whatever, I've got to walk at a fast pace. Walking at a slow pace is harder for me. It's harder. It's It takes more time. It takes more balance.

[00:00:54]And if I walk quickly, I can proceed on. So riding the wave.

[00:01:01]Don't let the wave ride you. Perhaps when I'm walking at a slower pace, it feels like the wave is riding me.

[00:01:11]But, you know, the business, the music business, and whether it's YouTube or uh, you know, playing gigs or going on tour or being in the studio or all of that stuff, it's all riding a wave.

[00:01:29]And uh the thing about not letting the wave ride you is not letting whatever you're going through, whatever you're doing, not letting it get the better of you, right? Not letting it control you, right? Don't let the wave uh you know, take you in places that you don't want to go. And that that might mean learning to say no in life. That might mean learning it's time to get off the board, go back to shore, and reset and wait for another wait for another wave or wait for another day. And uh I think this is uh this is an important message. Right now, I'm, you know, with all the the Fender guitar controversy and stuff going on, many people are riding the wave of emotion, riding the wave of uh the guitar business, right?

[00:02:37]And people are going to think and feel how they're going to think and feel. Um, and I have to just uh it's like I've got a video. It's hitting a nerve right now.

[00:02:52]It's getting a lot of views and it's it's you've got people passionate on both sides. And that that is where I'm riding the wave. I'm going to let the wave go however it goes.

[00:03:11]You know, it's the worst thing that could people could feel about you is indifference.

[00:03:19]If people are passionate either way, right? I mean, one huge thing out of this is the whole world seems to be talking about guitars.

[00:03:29]When was the last time an article came out in the Wall Street Journal about guitars, about the Stratacaster?

[00:03:38]When was the last time an image of Jimmyi Hendris was in the Wall Street Journal? Well, it all it all happened, this wave that we're all on, all the creators and and all that and whatever side of the uh argument you're on, you you know, people are passionate. I've tried to remain in the middle of the topic but present present both sides and uh you know that's that's riding the wave but not letting the wave ride you. Look, the thing about YouTube, right, the thing about YouTube is, and this could be the same for if you're if you're an artist, you know, artists get into PR problems from time to time. they they do something, they get caught doing something there. There's an issue and then all of a sudden, they're in this PR nightmare and fans are pissed off and and and the outrage lasts for a while.

[00:04:44]The outrage lasts for a while so they can they can either ride the wave, let it blow over, and then see where they stand.

[00:04:55]And um many of them most of them tend to bounce back unless it's just something uh you know uh completely egregious that can't be overcome.

[00:05:07]It's it's very often that these things have a life cycle and they blow over and it moves on. So they ride the wave of negativity.

[00:05:20]They they do a reset. they maybe uh put a statement out and they correct they correct their path and uh they move forward. And yeah, sometimes you got to sometimes you got to walk things back. But here's the thing, man. Right now, you know, I I'm I've got this post and it's it's getting it's getting traction from both sides. And that is where the al that's what the algorithm loves. The algorithm loves uh people disagreeing. The al algorithm loves people that get a rage in the comments. And I I didn't even I didn't even wasn't even trying to go for that.

[00:06:08]But I think people that are in in the game of YouTube, they probably understand it, right? they probably understand that that's exactly what it is. And that's why you see most creators not responding to comments because they get every day. Look, there's some people that just love they'll literally bait you into trying to uh respond to them.

[00:06:40]They'll say something so aggravating, so ridiculous, so against the the majority of people's opinions, they're trying to bait you into some kind of confrontation, right?

[00:06:54]You don't take the bait. That would be letting the wave ride you. what you do.

[00:07:01]What you do is, and I think probably more I'm going to have to do. I know, you know, on this channel I try to reply to everybody. It's getting it's getting to the point now where it's starting to get so many comments and stuff that I I I can't like reply to everything. and I'm doing my best to keep up with it, but I'm starting to let I'm letting comments that come in later on a topic. I'm I'm tending to let them slide or if somebody says something that's kind of kind of outrageous. It either gets deleted or I just leave it and just ignore it.

[00:07:45]And and here's the thing, man. somebody somebody on my community page probably uh you know a a guy like me or something that uh put some playing clips up and and they immediately get trolls telling them they need to quit and learn another instrument and stuff like this and and they're asking on the community page, you know, how do I deal with the trolls?

[00:08:13]Like whenever I post a video, I get these trolls and you think, man, why do these people do? Look, man, a lot of people post videos on YouTube that are not trying to be pro players. They're not trying to tell you um how great they are. They're just they're just sharing their music. They're sharing their love for music. And for somebody to take a shot at somebody like that, then what what kind of human being does that? I don't understand it. But I had to I had to tell the guy, "Hey man, just click to the right of their name.

[00:08:55]There's three little dots. Click remove." You remove them from the channel. They can comment all they want.

[00:09:03]you're not going to get bothered by their comments and they can operate in space.

[00:09:10]But man, why do we exist in a world like this?

[00:09:16]And again, this comes down to something we deal with as musicians.

[00:09:25]Um, we're constantly judged. We're constantly criticized. I mean, you can't even when I was a kid, I couldn't even get out of the house without somebody, you know, saying, "Oh, you you you need to do this or you need to do that."

[00:09:44]Everybody's got an opinion, right? And they're all going to think that their opinion, you need to do this, dude. And if you don't do this, then you're blowing it. You Oh, you need you should sing this song.

[00:09:59]I don't want to sing that song. I don't like that song. Yeah, but it's a great song. I don't want to do that song. And then if you don't do it, they they they say you're an idiot or they get ticked off.

[00:10:15]You know, it comes down to having thick skin more than anything.

[00:10:22]Realizing that if people are passionate about what you're doing or saying or playing or a stance you may take, you're going to get you're going to get a reaction.

[00:10:39]It's not always going to be the reaction you like.

[00:10:44]It's not always going to be a reaction you agree with. They may have some valid points. They may not have some valid points.

[00:10:52]But, uh, you're going to realize that that those moments like that where you do a controversial video and it it fires up people's emotions.

[00:11:05]Well, that's that's probably the only way you really get any traction.

[00:11:12]And uh, so that's why you have clickbait. That's why people make clickbait videos and and do these hot takes where they they bash somebody who's legendary or they they take a a a very radical stance against a major corporation or they, you know, they they have like so much passion, you know, behind a concept and their stance that there's different degrees, right, to dealing with a crisis or a PR situation or something that's in the press. And many people get stuck in the first level. The first level is emotion, reacting with emotion and taking aside and only that's the only right answer and all that. That's that's only like the that's that's like the first step.

[00:12:16]It's like the first step in grief is like something and you you want to progress through the steps and get through it, right?

[00:12:28]And many people are so emotionally invested, they can't ever get out of that first gear. They're just stuck in first gear pushing that gas pedal and it's the engine's revving and they're stuck.

[00:12:44]They can't see any other side and they can't listen to any other argument but their own.

[00:12:54]We as creators or musicians, people who put the time out to produce a show each day. Now, I'm coming out here right now and I'm I'm getting a little exercise and I'm getting some sun and I'm letting the I'm letting the algorithm and the outrage and all that feed itself.

[00:13:20]Let people duke it out in the comments.

[00:13:24]Uh because here's the thing.

[00:13:27]I'm a human being. I'm a one-man operation.

[00:13:33]Nobody pays me for opinions.

[00:13:36]Um I make I make very little a month doing these videos. And I'm uh I don't pay for views.

[00:13:48]I don't pay for subscribers.

[00:13:51]I'm just trying to do things the old school way. I'm trying to, you know, think through what I'm what I'm doing. I'm trying to come up with ideas each day to make videos. It's not easy.

[00:14:08]It's not easy to put. Look, many people never get past the point of getting used to hearing their voice or being able to tolerate how they look on camera.

[00:14:24]I'm an old dude, man. I'm an old guy, right? And it's just like the other day I went I went live uh vertically by sheerely by kind of accident setting up a a live stream and not doing it right. Well, you get a lot more people look coming in in that environment.

[00:14:51]I got a lot of views very quickly, but you get a lot of trolls as well. And I just it's hard to understand how somebody can hide behind a no um no uh profile picture and just immediately with the negative opinions.

[00:15:15]I I man that's not me.

[00:15:20]That's never been me.

[00:15:22]And I I don't I don't I don't fully get it. But here's the thing, man.

[00:15:29]Ride the wave. Don't let the wave ride you.

[00:15:34]This is this is something that you know, having a thick skin as a musician.

[00:15:40]Look, I remember a buddy of mine was telling me that he went and saw a popular rock group, very legendary rock group, but they weren't really huge fans of one member.

[00:15:55]So, they were they were they were in front of this member and they're like kind of like flipping him off and stuff and and you know, I'm thinking, man, I was thinking to myself, what if I was that guy? And look, I've been I've been on stage. I remember playing a club. I think it was in South Carolina. I can't I It's one of those Coyote Joe, Whiskey Joe, Whiskey River, you know, one of those type places.

[00:16:30]And there's this giant like I think he was like baldheaded like overall wearing, you know, 30 20B dude just standing dead center in the standing room only crowd.

[00:16:49]and he's just standing there with his middle finger in the air.

[00:16:55]Whole time you're playing, I mean, maybe it was a song or two. I I don't remember.

[00:17:01]But you one thing, you're you're up there. You've got all these people totally into what you're doing, totally into your music, but there's one guy that's that's flipping you the bird, scowlling, and your job is to entertain everybody else.

[00:17:28]Now, there are many people that are musicians, and some of them are great musicians, but they're just too fragile, too fragile for for this world.

[00:17:44]And those those guys either get out of the business or they get uh you know, something happens to them or they just break down.

[00:17:56]They give up. They what do you do if you're fra? How how would you handle that? I mean for us I think the guy might have eventually in that situation got into a shoving match with somebody in the crowd and I think he was all 320 lbs of him were were hauled out by about four dudes.

[00:18:22]Imagine if you took that personal. If somebody cuz you there are people in the crowd who are not going to be happy. They're going to get pissed off. They're going to have a few too many pops or a few too many shots and they wanted you to play a certain song.

[00:18:44]And if you're a side man, you got no you got no stake in the game. You don't get to decide what songs get played and it's always some obscure song that man we've never played that song live but that's their favorite song and man you didn't play my song and f you and all this kind of stuff and it's then they don't have any idea that you traveled you know 700 miles the day before or that night, the night before, get to that venue, you've been feeling like anyway, and uh the one the one minute where you feel, you know, like yourself is those 90 minutes or 60 minutes or 30 minutes, whatever length your set is that you're on stage And the rest of the time, man, is time away from your family, time away from your loved ones, time away from your home, your pets, everything you love, but you do it because you love playing music. You're trying to ride the wave and not let the wave ride you. Now, look, man. The reality is this.

[00:20:16]You got to be tough, man. You got to be tough. You can't let, you know, things bother you. You can't I We all looked at the guy, the 320b guy that was flipping us off and we're going, "What the?"

[00:20:37]Meanwhile, you know, and I'm a decent I'm a decentsized gentleman myself, but you know, you don't you're not going to it's like that guy in the the movie uh Stir Crazy. What was that big guy that they put him put him in their jail cell and he was a he was a hardened criminal, Bozendorfer or something like that.

[00:21:04]You don't go to battle with a guy like that, right? What do you do? You You continue playing your show. You continue doing your thing. You ignore the guy flipping you off. You ignore the comments that are trying to bait you into some kind of online battle.

[00:21:27]Pointless online battle or pointless accusations or pointless uh nonsense everybody gets to spew at will.

[00:21:44]You ignore all of that stuff. You put your head down and you play your song.

[00:21:52]You move forward. You get on the walk and talk and you you tell people these truths that uh can help people out there. That's what you do, man. That's what you do.

[00:22:06]You can't you can't uh let the wave change, you know, your opinion and all that. the things, look, things get heated. Things get heated on the road.

[00:22:20]If you're playing gigs, and I know a lot of people that uh watch this channel, you guys are vets.

[00:22:27]I call like being on stage is like it's like the battlefield, man.

[00:22:34]And you you got to do whatever it takes to keep people, you know, on the playing field in the game, on the right page, uh following the same battle plan. If some if if you're calling a tune, you know, there's different versions of different tunes, right? And players, what how sweet it is. You could have you could play that song and you could play the James Taylor version or you could play the uh Marvin Gay version. There's some differences in the chord changes and baseline I think in both of those.

[00:23:15]And uh if you're on stage and somebody keeps hitting hitting the wrong note. I remember I remember specifically playing a gig and we were playing the James Taylor version of the song, which I think has a few more chord changes in it or some different stuff going on.

[00:23:39]And uh the uh band leader told the bass player, "Hey, we're playing the James Taylor version." He goes, "Oh, oh yeah, yeah, I got it. I got it." And what did he do the whole time?

[00:23:52]He was playing the Marvin Gay version.

[00:23:56]He He wasn't listening. But man, there's there's times where you're on stage and you got to yell out, "Hey, man, go to the five. Go to the five." You got to yell out things or, "Hey, you know, I know drummers hate this, but if the singer feels it's dragging, he might be like, "Hey, man, pick it up."

[00:24:20]the old school cats, man. The old school cats, they are not afraid to uh play at whatever tempo feels comfortable at the time. And that is that is something that's important to note, man.

[00:24:37]If you uh if you're playing music, right, and you're playing, you know, you're playing it in front of a crowd and the music's it's not getting over. It's not going over. Maybe maybe it's cuz it's it feels like it's dragging a little bit. Maybe what you need to do is then uh you know, pick up the tempo a little bit. What you need to do is uh pivot, you know, play with more gusto sometimes, man. And and this is this is a unique thing and I'd love to hear from drummers on this. I know a lot of drummers will like to have their click settings depending on the gig.

[00:25:22]Some gigs are it's the exact setting every night. There may be backing tracks, all of that stuff. And so their job is to uh keep that consistency every night. But then a lot of the old school cats, man, um and especially if it's like a pickup gig, you're backing like, let's say you're backing Gary Lewis or you're backing uh uh Gary Pucket or somebody like that.

[00:25:53]You might have the songs learned. You might have them mapped out from the record, but when you get out there the and maybe he he didn't even go to soundcheck. Maybe you ran through the songs with the band leader at soundcheck. If you get out there and and the singer learns and goes like that or or goes like that, pull it back, slow it down. He'll try to give you signals.

[00:26:19]You've got to be cognizant and aware of that. You've got to ride the wave. Don't let the ra the wave ride you.

[00:26:29]You got to be aware of all this stuff.

[00:26:31]Them old school cats, man. Um, they didn't just uh play things by the book every single night.

[00:26:41]You listen to old live albums and you hear them like playing. My uh my daughter will go, "Man, why is he why is they playing Hound Dog so fast?" I said, "Cuz it's an oldie and they probably just want to get it over with, but it's also there's excitement. They're in front of a live audience." And that's how live performance used to be.

[00:27:08]the band got on a wave and you never know when the wave. Sometimes it's a slower wave, sometimes it's a smaller wave, sometimes it's uh a slow wave, the band gets on a groove, the band gets on a vibe, and you ride it. You ride it. And this is all this is all sort of a philosophical talk, you know, tying everything everything that I've done in my life, everything I've experienced and now realizing we're were great lessons.

[00:27:49]So, man, I'm lucky that I get to come out here and take this time with you and I appreciate you tuning in to this message and uh I appreciate you for riding this wave with me. Thanks so much everybody.

[00:28:06]I'll see you on the next one. Peace.