Diary of a Musician

March, 23rd, 1970

Michael woke us up at 5:13 this morning because we had a flight at 7:00. I did not want to get up. I hardly slept, all thanks to Robert who finally kicked me out of bed. I attemped to sleep on the floor but, I had no blanket and was freezing. When I finally fell asleep Michael woke us up. I was hoping that the flight would be really long so I could sleep. Nope, we were only going to L.A. which was only about an hour by plane. We sat in the airport until 6:45 when we got on the plane. We all sat together of course. Robert said "Hey, Aaron. How come you were sleeping on the floor?" I had my head in my hand. I looked up at him and said "Because I can't get any sleep with you kicking me all night... That's why." I said angrily. I get cranky when I'm really tired. Jimmy, Robert and John laughed at the fact that I was miserable. We sat in our seats chatting until I fell asleep. When I was asleep the rest of the band decided to write rude things on my face with permanent marker. I hadn't realized they had written such things on my face till we were in the dressing room that night. We were walking through the airport and the three of them were cracking up. "What's so funny guys?" I asked. "It's an inside joke, you were sleeping and missed it." John said before laughing even harder. I just shrugged and let it go. When we got to the hotel it was a bit after eleven o'clock. We had a show tonight and it was a big one. The Coliseum. This was almost as big as the New York gig. We were all really excited and nervous. The rest of the band followed me down to the pool. I sat on a chair near the pool with my sunglasses on. Robert jumped in the pool immediately. John joined Robert and Jimmy sat with me for a bit. After about 20 minutes in the sun I looked at Jimmy and said "Well, I'm going in. Wish me luck." I saluted him and dove into the deep end. Jimmy laughed as I scared the living daylight out of Robert. Everyone but Robert laughed. Robert then lifted me up and threw me back into the deep end. I played dead. As I floated face up Robert yelled "Oh come on, Aaron. Do you really think I'm going to fall for the whole playing dead thing?" I remained still. Jimmy and John began to worry. "Aaron? Are you okay?" Jimmy said wearily. Robert started to worry a bit. John swam towards me frantically. Jimmy rushed over and Robert watched nervously. I winked at John and Jimmy. "Oh no!" John said. "What!? What's wrong!? Is he okay!?" Robert said anxiously. "He's dead!" John yelled. "What!? No! He can't be dead! It was an accident! I didn't mean to hurt him!" Robert cried. "Well, this isn't good... We have a show tonight and no lead guitarist." Jimmy sighed. Suddenly I started laughing. "I hate you! I hate you guys so much! You suck!" Robert yelled as we all laughed. "You SO fell for it!" I laughed. Jimmy said "That was a good one, Aaron." I nodded and thanked him. "For such a spare of the moment thing, that was bitchin'!" John exclaimed. Robert crawled out of the pool cursing under his breath. We all went up stairs to our rooms and got showered. John and I sat on the bed watching TV, as Jimmy came in still in the clothes he had worn to the pool. "Hey, uh... Jimmy, man. You still have the same clothes on." John said. "No? Really? I hadn't noticed." Jimmy said sarcastically. "Well, uh, why?" John asked. "Cause our stupid drummer is sitting in the shower/tub playing with a rubber duckie..." Jimmy replied blatantly. John and I erupted with laughter. "Hey! I got an idea!" John yelled. "Oh crap..." Jimmy and I said in unison. "Get the camera, boys!" John ordered. I picked up my camera and followed John into Jimmy and Robert's room. I cracked the bathroom door open just enough to get a picture of Robert in the tub with his rubber duck. Thankfully he hadn't noticed the flash. We ran back to Me and John's room to look at the picture. It came out perfectly. We hid the camera and picture in a drawer. Jimmy asked to use our shower and I told him it was fine. Jimmy grabbed some clothes from his room and came back to shower. John and I watched TV until Jimmy got out of the shower. The three of us hung out and wrote a song. "I came up with this while I was in the shower. I figured you guys could put some more words to it and we could all finish it." Jimmy said. We all sat down, I had my guitar and Jimmy had a guitar that he was playing a bass line on. John came up with some really heavy lyrics to go with the ones Jimmy had come up with. Within about twenty minutes we had the song finished. Robert came in and asked what we were doing. We played him the song and said we wanted to play it at the show tonight. "Sure, I can come up with a beat. I like it!" Robert said. We got ready to leave for the show. On our way to the show John sang the new song for Robert so he could get a better feel for it. We played the new song first. "We'd like to start out with a brand-new song. We just wrote it. Let us know if you like it." John said before the song started. The crowd loved the new song as much as our popular ones. We finished the show and went to a bar called "The Rainbow Bar" it was a really nice place. We all got so drunk Michael had to practically carry us out to the car. Lucky for him we were all pretty skinny.