For various reasons, I haven’t seen my younger sister Sandra in many years. I was seven years older than her and moved to Chicago when she was still in high school. After many years in rehab, I have finally settled down. Part of my healing process is reconnecting with family that I ignored during my meteoric rise and lost crash years.
It was exciting to see Sandra as an adult with her own family. She helped me make a huge dinner. Working with Sandra in the kitchen reminded me of doing the same thing when we were kids doing the same thing in Mom’s kitchen. Sandra has two kids - twins Barry and Barbara who are 11. With incredible speed, they turned my library into their own makeshift concert hall with a Nintendo Wii connected to the small TV and plastic instruments that somehow connect to the device.
While we were cooking, I heard some familiar sounds coming from the library. The twins were playing Cherub Rock. I played bass on that song! I’d been getting royalty checks for the game, but I’d never seen it in person. I told the twins about my days in Smashing Pumpkins and showed them pictures of me performing. They seemed unimpressed and asked if I could play bass on the Wii. Seeing as how I was a professional bassist for one of the most popular bands of the 90s, I figured it would be easy. I failed miserably, getting booed off the stage in less than a minute.
Although it’s cool to see a younger generation rediscover the music I made, it’s sad to me that kids are more into the artificial experience of playing games than something genuine like making actual music.
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