My story

Not that you should care...

Born in Gary, Indiana, I am the second of three children born to native Pennsylvanian parents who met each other at Penn State University.  My Dad spent his career as a chemical engineer with DuPont.  My Mom, who received her degree in Chemistry from Penn State, raised my brother, sister, and me before resuming her career teaching high school and college math and chemistry.  Being born in the Midwest, growing up in the Northeast, and living in the South has allowed me to witness diverse cultural domestic lifestyles.    

I’ve always had a love of music.  My Dad’s Mom had the first console stereo I ever heard.   We would visit her in her Pennsylvania mountain home. I would lie on the floor between the stereo speakers for hours, mesmerized by the three-dimensional sounds emanating from the speakers.  Canadian Sunset, Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White, Grieg’s Peer Gynt, and on and on.  I was hooked.  Then one Sunday Evening in February of 1964, my whole family gathered around our black and white TV to watch The Ed Sullivan Show.  The music and on-screen charisma were unlike any I had ever seen or heard.  Something changed that day. 

I remember figuring out how to make a pair of stereo headphones and buying the electrical components from Lafayette Electronics in Plainfield, NJ.  They were a very crude but functional design.  The headband was made from a bent wire coat hanger, and the ear-cups, from two margarine tubs.  Duct tape was about to become an integral part of my life.  By this time, my parents also had a console stereo.  I wired myself into it, placed my new Led Zeppelin II album on the turntable, and fell entirely into a new dimension.  Parents… don’t let your kids wander down this path.

I saved my dimes and quarters and soon had my first component stereo system.  My bedroom had quality speakers in each corner, continually pushing amazing noises into my little nirvana.  My parents soon changed my name to “Turn That Down”.

I am a bit of a "whistler".  My Mom’s father, my grandpa, was a whistler, as was my uncle, so I guess I inherited this trait from them, if you can inherit such things.  My Mom would tell me that I had a happy soul because no matter what I was doing, or how much I detested doing it, she would eventually hear me whistling a tune.  New tunes and variations would come to me out of the air.  I often wondered if I had just made up a new song or was merely going off on a tangent from something I’d already heard.  I guess every song is just a recycling of the 12 notes.  It didn’t matter… it was in me and getting loose!  At this point in my life, I was still very focused on sports.  I had not yet considered picking up an instrument, but somehow, I always knew music would be part of my life.

At 21, a bubble had burst for me a few years earlier when I clearly recognized that my dreams of playing professional football would not materialize, so, naturally, I picked up my first guitar.  An acquaintance had an electric guitar for sale.  It was a Dan Armstrong copy made by a company called “Univox”.  This guy wanted to sell it for party money, so I scraped up enough to make his party happen.  I’d never seen anything like it.  The body was made of clear Lucite, and it was HEAVY!  My sister had a cheap, made-in-China, acoustic guitar at the house.  I had picked it up a few times, but that beast could not be tamed.  No matter where you were on the fretboard, it was out of tune and made your fingers bleed.  I couldn’t even find 1st gear on that thing.  This new guitar, by all comparisons, was the real deal.  If I could learn to play, this would be my Kitty Hawk!  I dove headfirst into the deep end.

 As I imagine with anyone hungry to learn guitar, every spare moment was spent on the edge of my bed.  I would queue up a record and attempt to mimic what I heard.  I started slowly but gradually merged into traffic. Soon, I was playing along, finding my way around the fretboard and learning the landscape.  I was stumbling along just fine, playing mostly with three fingers on my left hand, and catastrophe struck.  I had done some customizing and airbrushing of murals on vans when I nipped the tip of my left index finger on a circular saw. It turned out to be relatively superficial, but I couldn’t use that most important finger for guitar playing for over a month while my injury healed.  Sometimes things happen for a reason.  I don’t know if I believe that, but this unfortunate accident forced some amazing growth.  I found it necessary to move all the finger assignments of my left hand over one finger, bringing my little finger into active duty.  What an eye-opener! (Ear-opener?)

Years passed, and I was still playing alone because it was fun.  I had no time or desire to play in a group or with other musicians.  I am more of a mad scientist with music composition rather than a performing musician.  I love the entire process, from genesis to composition through to recording.  However, at one point, I had an invitation to play with others that I could not refuse.  The experience turned into a huge blessing for me.  One day in 1980, up in Jacksonville, Florida, a friend of a friend invited me to bring my guitar and amp to his house for a loose jam.  I showed up with my Lucite guitar and Fender Amp.   We talked and played for hours.   It was amazing.  The next day, this guy shows up at my house, looks at me, and blurts out, “Let’s go”!  I ask, “Where to?”  He says, “We’re getting you a real guitar!”  Robert Fehr, wherever you are… thank you.

I have had relationships with more than 20 guitars, possibly 30, and hands down, my favorite is the Gibson Les Paul, the “Black Beauty” that I purchased that day in 1980.   I spent $610 that day, and it is now worth 7-8X that.  I will never sell it.  It will eventually be given to whichever of my grandchildren shows interest.  That guitar has become a part of me… an extension of my soul.  I love playing different guitars and own several.  They all have a unique feel, quality, and sound… like different paintbrushes, they can take you in different directions.  With that said, I am loyal to a fault and will always come “home”. 

Many stars have blazed across the skies since those early days, and what was once just an intermittent affair has evolved into a way of life.  Every lyric and all artwork for every song you are about to hear have been squeezed out.  I composed, played, recorded every note, and breathed every word.  Some songs are just for fun.  Like many songwriters, my beliefs and feelings are transparent in many lyrics.  I’m certainly not the final word on anything and would not impose my opinions or position on anyone.  My goal is to share something that will make you smile and enjoy it as you listen.  This is me, wide open.  I am not a world-class musician, but I have a vivid imagination and a desire to create, invent, and tinker.  More than anything, I had so much fun in the process.  Over the years, I have written countless songs. I hope to upload many on this website as time allows.

This effort is dedicated to my wife, daughter, grandchildren, parents, siblings, grandparents, teachers, and friends like you, to the pursuit of joy, to our Country and values I treasure, and above all, to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who lent these gifts to me for a wink of an eye.

Thanks for stopping by.  I am honored that you took the time.  Please come again!  Go and make someone smile   : )

Jeff

Jeffry R.  Rothrock