​Why did I take guitar lessons?

Could I have learned the guitar without them?

​As I have stated in many of these earlier articles, I started taking guitar lessons when I was about 13 years old in 1976. When you're 13 years old, all that matters to you is finding your identity and fitting in with your friends. Prior to guitar, the only thing I knew how to do when I was 13, was how “not” to play basketball very well. I was good at football, but never big enough to join a team. I bought monthly issues of MAD magazine, because I wanted to learn how draw cartoons. I was not an academic student in school, so the identity crisis I faced was conforming to what the adults in my life expected of me. I needed something that would be all my own, just for me. Something that would give me an identity, a voice and a purpose.

My best friend Mark decided to take guitar lessons at his school. I knew nothing of his decision until the afternoon his mom pulled up in the driveway of his house, while his brother and I were playing basketball. Mark got out of the station wagon and pull…