Then we decided to take a break in mid-August and spend a few days in Amsterdam. It was great. Beautiful summer weather. Benny, our west highland terrier, was 15 at the time and he really enjoyed the park we went to every day. It was just what we all needed. We felt relaxed.
And then we took the train back to Paris.
Before I got shot on the train I was reading an article online that predicted the Green Bay Packers would win Super Bowl 50. I thought maybe the article was right but felt that the Packers should have won it all the previous season. Aaron Rogers’ leg injury had kept them out of Super Bowl 49 altogether. That was my take anyway.
As I was reading the article about the Packers I noticed a suitcase on wheels being pulled into the restroom. I didn’t have time to see who was doing the pulling.
I went back to the article started to think that maybe the Packers did have a chance to win it all this year. Man they are good. When they are firing on all pistons they are unstoppable.
I remember briefly wondering what it’s like to live in Wisconsin.
About 15 minutes elapsed between the suitcase on wheels and life in Wisconsin.
Then it happened: the shooter, the first guy who grabbed him by the throat, then me grabbing his AK-47 and running away with it, not realizing the shooter also had a 9mm Lugar he would end up shooting me with. He also had a razor knife, lots of ammo and even gasoline.
Then Spencer Stone tackled the guy. Then the shooter was hogtied. Then Isa told Spencer I needed medical attention. Thanks Isa. Spencer kept me from bleeding to death. Thanks Spencer.
I started to fade at one point and I think I saw the beginning of the movie of my life, the one they say people see when they die. I saw horizontal lines behind a long, foggy oval window. The lines turned into the white aluminum siding on the very first house I ever lived in. Everything was in black and white just like our TV at the time. To my right, my mother was humming as she did the dishes. My mother was also wearing a pair of black cat eyeglasses. She was happy. It was quiet. All I could hear was her humming. My mother had a great singing voice and you could tell even when she was just humming.
Then I woke myself up after I spoke to myself and said that if I didn’t wake up now I never would.
In the hospital I remember thinking I might never be able to play the guitar again due to the nerve damage I had suffered, but thankfully I have recovered enough to play, though without the same dexterity as before. Most of the problems come from my left index and thumb. And then there’s the left arm. I have received excellent medical attention and hopefully I will recover more over the next year or so. At the hospital I felt relieved that 99% of the guitar tracks for « love is the only game in town » had already been recorded before the train.
After a few months of therapy I found myself back working hard on the mixes. There was a lot to do. Isa got a lot done in a short period of time. Very efficient. As the months went by things really began to take shape and then we were in the home stretch, no more tracks to add but countless little adjustments to make. This final phase has always been the most challenging to me since I find myself staying up late and getting up early to get everything done, trying to deal with a swarm of details in an obsessive mindset while running on fumes.
In mid-February we were getting close to the finish line and had a little photo shoot featuring Isabelle, myself and Benny, who had turned 16 on December 21st, 2015 . Little did we realize that Benny would die from stomach cancer just a few weeks later. We knew about his condition, but he had been doing so well and his passing in March came as a shock. We were devastated. He was a friend, a mentor and by far the most mature of the three of us. Needless to say, it is fitting that we are all on the cover of « love is the only game in town ».
I sought emotional refuge in my work and threw myself back into the mixes and finally finished at the end of March. By that time I was pretty much going nuts. Fortunately, my cell phone plan allows me to call friends in the U.S. who let me talk their ears off again and again. At the bottom of the back cover of « love is the only game in town », you can see their names though they are not easy to read.
It says “Special thanks to Steve Train, Kevin Lipnicki and Dave Ellis for their valuable input.”
Kevin sent me the Mountain Dulcimer used on “Flow”. Thanks Kevin.