The American Rock Star – The Way I Heard It Podcast (Ep. 14)

you see that steam steam rising from the first cup of coffee of the weekend here it is ever so faintly you can see it along with my reflection in the first cup of coffee of the weekend I don't know what it is about the first sip of the first cup of coffee of the weekend we've talked about it before here I guess it's seared into my retina from years of reading John D McD Donald and Travis McGee McGee uh was obsessed with the first sip of Jin every Saturday evening he uh he liked Plymouth very dry very cold Plymouth gin and he would pour it into a a Tom Collins glass one of those Tall Glasses he'd fill it with ice first and then put a little Sherry in and then he dumped the Sherry out leaving only the coated cubes over which he poured the freezing gin the cubes would would crack and the the lingering Sherry would react in some delightful way with the Juniper and on and on McGee would go but his point was you only get the first sip once same thing with coffee you only get the first sip once is a consummation devoutly to be wished was very good anyways the way I heard it apologies for the late start I slept in I haven't slept in in a couple of weeks been on the road for the last 14 days now I'm back to where the mail comes and uh I've pulled this story from the archives because earlier uh this week I posted an answer to a question on the wall from a woman named Donna who asked in a somewhat accusatory fashion why it was I had never joined the United States armed forces uh and I answered her candidly as I often do and I went to bed as I am prone to do and I awaken the next morning as I am want to do and checked the Facebooks and bang 4 million people 4 million people had been reached by our little Exchange in the resulting conversation was fascinating touched on the importance of service in listing and volunteering versus the draft and many people with many opinions you just never know what's going to stimulate a conversation maybe this will as well it's called the American rock star and uh it touches on a lot of those uh same things so I'm going to read it to you right now you know what I'm going to go ahead and have a ship number two just because because I can wow take it back that was better than the first one have you subscribed yet to the way I heard it I'm Duty bound to ask you to micro.com podcast hit the Subscribe button I don't care if you listen to it on iTunes or Stitcher or Google or none of them you can watch them right here on Facebook but if you don't hit subscribe nobody knows you exist and if nobody knows you exist that's no way to go through life the toilet had never done anything to Jason but Jason was nevertheless determined to blow the toilet to pieces his reasons were those of a moody kid plagued with enough teenage ANS to fill the entire state of Washington so Jason lit the fuse of the M80 dropped it into the bowl closed the lid and walked out of the restroom a minute later a deafening Roar echoed through the hallways of his junior high school and the toilet was no more today a stunt like that would land Jason in jail luckily this was the early 80s and the principal decided on a week's suspension instead luckier still was his grandmother's decision to make Jason talk to a counselor and luckiest of all were the presence of several guitars in the counselor's office Jason was immediately taken with the instrument and the counselor invited him to pick it up and start strumming before long the two were jamming for most of their scheduled session launching what his grandmother would later call the most expensive guitar lessons in the world by the time he finished high school Jason still had plenty of angst but he also had a plan he was going to be a rockstar his first band made a splash in the Seattle grunge scene and showed some real potential but there was something in Jason that still wanted to blow stuff up and this time it wasn't the plumbing it was his future Jason became difficult to collaborate with and even less fun to be around his friends and family could do nothing but watch and horror as the promising band eventually had to replace him but Destiny was not quite done with Jason after some genuine regret and self-reflection the rock star in Waiting was given a second chance this time an older band of more established musicians saw Jason's undeniable talent and welcomed him into their midst overnight Jason was playing to soldout Arenas standing ovations and glowing reviews from everybody in the industry but again Jason couldn't seem to handle the success he thought he craved maybe he was depressed or maybe he was just a drag to be around whatever the case Jason retreated into himself once again sabotaging his future leaving his bandmates with no choice but to replace the Moody based player with someone less miserable sometimes when you hit what feels like the bottom it's not enough to Simply start over sometimes you got to go in a completely different direction so Jason did something that most aspiring rock stars would never do he cut his hair he lost his nose ring then he enlisted in the Army and applied for a FastTrack program into Ranger school Jason not only got in he excelled from Fort Benning Georgia it was off to Fort Lewis Washington not far from where he had blown up the innocent toilet 10 years earlier there he completed his ranger training and got a round trip ticket to Latin America where he fought in a number of covert Wars then it was off to Asia to combat piracy on the high seas Jason served with great distinction but he wanted more so at 26 years of age old for a soldier he applied for the special forces and got in completing his final stage age of training on September 11th 2001 in no time he was up to his neck in the world's most dangerous places in Afghanistan Jason smelled the poppy fields of Kandahar came face to face with suicide bombers and learned the local language he helicoptered in Iraq firing grenades from a Humvee in the front line of America's biggest conventional military operation since World War II basically Jason was on the world stage playing with a very different kind of band A Band of Brothers again you won't get any of these details from Jason directly most of what he did is still classified but the medals and the photos covering the wall in the cabin he calls home are both numerous and hard to Discount the coveted combat infantryman badge sits next to a photo of Jason with Donald Rumsfeld and general Stanley mccristal you might say that in blowing things up Jason finally found a career he couldn't destroy and by hitting the reset button when he did Jason did something pretty extraordinary because while Jason is certainly not the only one to ever sabotage his own career he might be the only one to do so in such spectacular incomparable fashion if you thought Pete best blew it but back with the Beatles consider this the first band that Jason bungled sold 30 million records the year after he got himself fired yeah 30 million and the second band don't even get me started on the second band ultimately Jason Everman the guitar player that everybody wanted missed out on more than 100 million albums sold and many many many millions of but what he wound up with was a hell of a story the only guitar player to wash out of two of the greatest bands to ever take the stage Nirvana and sound garden but still go on to become an American rock star anyway that's the way I heard it

Channel: Mike Rowe

Views: 65,204

Keywords: mike rowe, The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe, podcast

Id: 0zS2cet5BM4

Length: 8min 53sec (533 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 01 2016