I had to look up Five Finger Death Punch.
I was fortunate to do a lot of neat things with music, but easily the bulk of my playing in my life happened in church. I eventually picked up the bass and became deceptively good at it, by which I mean, in the right kind of music, and with enough preparation, I could fool you into thinking I was pretty good. If forced into too much improv or anything but the limited style of music I "mastered" it would've been quickly obvious I was a one-trick pony. Keys.....I should've been better....my folks got me piano lessons when I was young, my mom was/is quite a player, and I've always known quite a lot of music theory. But I never took the time to translate it into anything proficient. The only reason I functioned as a synth player in a church band was all the songs at that point were nearly the same 4 chords over and over, and I had plenty of time to prep. Any more serious musical setting would've laughed me away from anywhere near a keyboard. I was only ever really good at drums. Which was fine, because they were my true love anyway.
Ironically, I grew up in churches where black gospel was the norm, and that's what I cut my teeth on. It ultimately lends itself to pop and funk, which became my "sweet spot," although I did continue off and on through the years to moonlight at predominantly black churches, filling in. Some pretty hilarious stories there, but that's another thread.
It wasn't until I moved to Austin where I learned a truly legit blues and hard rock feel. I was kind of a hack at it prior to that. The church scene in Austin had embraced the grittier praise and worship sound and had much less need of my gospel roots. It was a struggle at first, and a bruise to my ego, because I was used to functioning at a really high level and other musicians being happy to play with me. The Austinites didn't give two figs about my funky shuffle, they wanted me to thunder-crack the snare and nuke-boom the low toms. It took a while, but eventually I got it. Made some great friends there, and got to play with some amazing bands at some of the big churches there.
Now I'm crippled AF, haven't played in years, and have tried to forget the whole thing because dwelling on it puts me in a dark place I try to avoid. A number of my friends from various times and places have migrated to Nashville, with varying degrees of success. One of my oldest friends, interestingly from my LA hometown, but also moved to Austin before me and was the music director of the church I regularly attended, moved to Nashville in 2008 and has become a top session guy there in addition to being Michael McDonald and Reba McIntyre's touring bassist. Others have done some neat things as well, though probably not to that level. I suppose it's just as well I never had the balls to put down the "real" job and really go for the gold.....I'd almost certainly have wound up with these medical conditions anyway, and that would've been disaster. Still, when I listen to any kind of good music, it frustrates the hell out of me to know that I used to be able to participate in that, and I'd probably just put my eye out with a stick now if I tried.
You gave me a 'lolz' thinking about showing up to an early-service practice and listening to La Grange in church.
