Zane gave himself the stage name of N'Zane when he played for the Jagermeister band, Negative 263.
Part 2:
Waiting To Exhale
That one black tape inspired such a love for Metallica. I didn't care at the time that they might have had other albums, or that they would go on to make more. I just wanted my black album. My mother and I would end up staying the majority of my childhood in Alpine, six hours away from my grandparents, aunts, and uncles. I practically grew up on the highway. Nearly every two weeks we would take a trip back to Abilene to visit family. Alpine is a small town with very few options in the way of entertainment. We had two radio stations. One was the main FM station which featured country music and daily announcements and the lonely and often fuzzy AM station which played old westerns and show tunes. I remember hearing, "16 tons, What do'ya get? Another day older and deeper in debt..." on that station. If we didn't travel to family, we would still travel to Midland/Odessa or El Paso, 3 hours in either case, to watch the latest movies and visit friends.
These many hours on the road were both a bonding experience for me and my mother, as well as an opportunity for us to rock out to music. I had my single black album tape and this would eventually lead to my mom enjoying Metallica... just this album anyway. However, my mom would bring her own feminine taste. She had joined that BGM music service at one point. You know the one. "Get 10 CD's/Tapes for just a penny each!". She would play her music on her turn and I had no choice but to listen, and listen I did. Ace of Bass, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Backstreet Boys, Christina Aguilara, Ru Paul, Selina, and soundtracks to movies that featured any of these artists; her favorite being the "Waiting to Exhale" album. She loved that album and she loved the movie. She was the type of woman who had to pin each character in a film to someone she knew personally. Every movie we watched had SOMEONE in it that would cause her to laugh or cry, tap me on the arm, and tell me, "That's you. You do that. You're that guy". This movie she seemed to really identify with the single mother. Occasionally, she would want to listen to something from her childhood, and this is how I was introduced to The Eagles, E.L.O., and Creedance Clearwater Revival.
The rule of the road was that we could listen to our music, once through a single album. Once we ended up getting a CD player, I would steal the CD's that I enjoyed the most. ELO and Ace of Bass were two that I remember. I used to know every word to every song on "The Sign." I tested my memory a year or so ago and tried to sing all the words to the album after not hearing it in years. Being the shithead thief I was, I ended up stealing CD's from my cousins as well to grow my collection. Korn's Follow the Leader, Issues, and Metallica's LOAD album were some of them.
When I wasn't constantly jamming to the black album or songs from my mother's past, I tended to listen to whatever music was on MTV, (Back when they played music non-stop until 10pm when Beavis and Butt-head would start) and video games. When I was four, I would turn my NES on and just let game music run. I continued this hobby into my teens, especially with wrestling games. MTV would allow me to love songs like Mrs. Jones, Bawitdaba, The Hook, No Scrubs, and of course Weird Al when his specials would air. I wasn't too picky as a youngster. I hadn't even owned an instrument at this point yet. My mom had convinced me that Zane was going to give me his guitar when I was old enough, but this never happened, because he never knew about her plan either. I begged for a guitar for years and my only musical outlet would be playing on keyboards of friends. Around age 3, I was given an electric guitar toy for a Christmas. A 1989 Kawasaki Electronic Digital Guitar by Remco. It was enough to make noises and build rhythm, but a guitar it was not. Here's some gear porn for you all. First photo is a photo of my Granddaddy jamming on this sweet bit^# the day I got it. It had real guitar strings exposed for 4 or 5 inches, and buttons that would change the pitch of the strings. You could either play in free style, play along in freestyle to programmed music, or strum the strings and the guitar would play with pitch it decided with the music.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v321/KaiNHooD/Granddaddy.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/1989_Kawasaki_Electronic_Digital_Guitar_by_Remco_circuit_bend_2.jpg
http://www.auctiva.com/hostedimages/showimage.aspx?gid=720445&ppid=1122&image=909148570&images=909148569,909148570,909148574,909148576,909148580,909148585,909148588&formats=0,0,0,0,0,0,0&format=0
One Christmas, when I was around 13, my mother and her friend Marilyn took a trip into Mexico to go Christmas shopping. On Christmas Day, I opened my gifts and stayed hanging out in the living room. My mom claimed that I had my real present in another room and that I would have to close my eyes to get it. I closed my eyes and soon after had something heavy on my lap. I had a classical guitar of my own. It was poorly crafted, but I didn't know any better. I used it every day for a very long time. I found out a year or so later that my mom had sold her blood a few times to try and save up enough money to have a Mexican build it. I still own it, though it is not playable. It's a husk with a split around the entire body, but it's my first guitar, and I can't forget what had to be done to get it to me.
