2003 was in full swing. By this point, the relationship with my girl was on the rocks, I was trying to grow a beard, IROM were gearing up and writing a new CD for the harvest earth split with foreknown, Chris and I still lived in our house in elizabethton, and I took a job at the highschool in erwin as a cafeteria Janitor. To me, this would be the last year as a careless kid. I was a 19year old debt free, no responsibility, JR college dropout My girl at the time wouldn't tell people that i was a cafeteria janitor, and would, from time to time say things like, "remember when you used to have that good job and we went and did things all the time?" haha. We were kids, we had different ambitions, and were prideful over different things, she was cool, but needless to say, that didn't last much longer. It was probably the worst i have ever felt over a breakup/letdown etc. I was sick at my stomach for a week. I told her that it didn't have to be that way, but i knew it did. I've probably spoke to her 4 or 5 times since then. When people want 2 different things, and its not working out, it needs to end. otherwise you lose friends, sleep, composure.
That was a cold as fuck winter. the school i worked for was closed for 3 weeks due to snow. I couldn't get unemployment so i would just be out of work for weeks at a time, with no way of recouping the moneys. The woman i worked for was about a 250 pounder with a flat top, who drove a pickup with Dale JR stickers on it. She hated my guts. She would be cussing me out before i even made it in the door. I could hear her screaming at me. It was alow point in life. We had no electricity, No water, I worked at a highschool cafeteria as the guy that in previous years i had gave shit on multiple occasions, and I had no chicka to hang out with. In march,chris and i both moved back in with out parents. I felt even shitter over that. The good thing was, that year, we played a ton of good NC shows because pete was friends with a few dudes that booked in nc. We got to play with Beloved, Bloodjinn, with honor, darkest hour, Galdriel, etc. that year, so that was cool. That april joey and i, at the spur of the moment, decided to pack our lunch, put a matress in my minivan, and go to MACROCK in harrisonburg VA. We got there just in time to see a killer lineup all in one show.
Spitfire, Scarlett, Beloved, Hopesfall, Give Up the Ghost, comeback Kid, Converge, Norma Jean(fuck you they put on a good show back then), Dillinger escape plan, Underoath, Paint it black, Black cross, The black widows, Soo many good bands, i can't even remember played. It was the perfect beginning to my spring. We got home, and we Finished Recording the album and got it sent off, and started planning our summer tour and working to save up. The Next couple of Months would not be that exciting. I was working at Steak out now. I was making great money again. I was fishing, playing music, and talking to this girl that i had met at cornerstone the following year. She was killer, she lived in rochester NY and was going to school for Graphic Design or something like that. I felt genuinely close to the girl. We talked on the phone like every day, Had she lived her we would have probably dated. I also started hanging out with the girl who i totally assholed out at her prom-thing. She had recently dropped her dude, and we were hanging out alot. I really enjoyed her company, and still really had a thing for her, and she knew it. A girl that i was friends with at the time told me i was an easy guy to get attatched to, and that i should watch it. Whatever. She also used the song "oh amy don't hate me" by the get up kids to pester me and every other dude she hung out with.
Oh Jakey, Don't hate me.. Kill me.
By this point we were in the latest stages of our tour planning, and It was looking good. We would embark on our tour June 14. Now all we needed was a van, and for harvest earth to get our cd's to us. In late may (i think) Pete called me and told me that the cds were in. I decided to drive to NC to get them. Part of the reason for my trip was this girl that pete used to date, that i knew from around, who i thought was cute. I went and got the cd's and then went to hang out with her. We watched magnum P.I. at her house, then went driving around town. She jokingly asked if i wnated to go to the parkway and "park and hang out" I was kind of nervous, and at the same time stoked, I didn't tho. We ended up sitting in the walmart parking lot listning to the radio, I had my arm around her, I almost made a move and i could see that she wanted me to, but i couldn't bring myself to. I dunno, Maybe i was a coward, maybe it was better off this way. She was a cool girl. I was shallow and needed completion.
So plans fell through, and we weren't able to leave for tour for the first week, due to no shows actually getting booked. Go figure. So I hear a rumor that johnny cash was going to be playing a show at carter fold. We pile up in pete's honda and drive that way. We get there and notice a mass exodus going toward the fold, so we knew that it was happening. when we parked on the side of the road. This sherrif informed us to watch out for the electric fence, that if we got tangled in it, i'd wear our ass out. Also that if the car wasn't further off the road, the happy hooker'd take it away. There was also a guy climbing the hill behind the fold wearing a full halo back straightner. He was giving 110%. Cash played, it was amazing, then he played "farside gates of jordan" the chorus of this song goes.
"I'll be waiting on the far side gates of jordan, I'll be waiting, drawing pictures in the sand, and when i see you coming i will rise up with a shout, and come running through the shallow water reaching for your hand"
This was 2 weeks after june had passed away.. kmaybe a month or so. It made me cry like a small baby. This guy who had lived a life that most authors work years to build for their charachters, who was the toughest of the tough, live at folsom prison, johnny cash. Was shaking, coughing, gray, and withered. And he was singing this beautiful song with his voice shaking as he finished each verse. It was the most moving thing i've ever witnessed.
It was worth not going out for a week to see that.
We bought a van, Snake eyes, and soon after, departed on our first day of tour. We stopped at a truck stop in south carolina. I took a shower, not knowing you had to pay for one, and a woman walked in on me. Then when i came out, she was like, was that you that stole the shower. I replaied YEAHHHHHH! Still oblivious to the fact that I had to pay for it. I finally gave the clerk the money for the shower after a brief making fun of. That show was awesome, we were stoked. The next day was atlanta. It was pretty cool, The nutron bomb was in the middel of the ghetto, which made me alittle nervous, but fuck, i was a kid and had never really been to a big city. after altanta we drove to whitesburg ky for a show. It was alright, we met back up with a band that we played with a few nights prior. They were nice guys. The girl that was still head over heels for called and said she was driving to that show. When we got there, she was there, with Johnman............... I told her how i felt. She told me "i feel that way too, but i'm confused, and i don't want to wake up tomorrow and not feel the same way" Basically the same thing i had told her a few years prior. Funny how that stuff comes back to bite you in the ass.
That night, I decided it wasn't worth the hassle. We left whitesburg and somehow got lostbetween there and lexington. We circumnavigated the entire state of kentucky untill finally showing up at Eddie's appartment. It was cool. The next day sheets and joey were at walmart when these chicks had adead battery. They used irom money to buy them jumper cables and jump them off. It was a nice gesture. They then asked if we wanted to come swimming. Of course we did. Sheets was so nervous. He had a girlfriend and just felt it was wrong to swim with these other chicks. He also hadn't showered in a week, in that van, with no ac, in july, in the southeast. He comes around the corner and says. Ok, i'll swiml but thise (swiping hand motion up and down his chest area) is not for sale. We went swimming, in the Eky pool. Sheets was so greasey that the water beaded off of his face and skin. After that we came home and found out that chick was John Lunceford ( eddie's roommate's) ex gf of like 4 days ago. on top of that he was really bummed, and we thought he was joking, so we just made fun of him. we spend the next few days watching terry tate videos and eating ramen doing laundry and hanging out. the next show was in Terre haute IN. This was our first show with foreknown. They were nice guys, kind of jerks, but still nice. Everyone gets a big head when they go out for the first time and sell alot of merch. Fun times. Jason from Dead of Winter got us a hotel room. It was sweet. The next day we had off before cornerstone so we drove from terre haute IN to bushnell, well actually Macomb for the night, anyway. We were driving north and the interstate splits and one way goes to chicago and the other to Peoria. (74 adn 55). We had been watching a storm front in our distance and talkinga bout how bad it would blow to drive through that. Well as soon as the interstate split we drove right into the most torrential downpour i've ever seen up untill that point. It gets so bad that we can't see out the windows, so we pulll over. We are on a bridge over troubled water hahaah. All at once a funnel cloud htis the water to our right, then to our left. Then it hovered, hailed on us, then hit the water again and almost flipped the van over with a gust of wind. We were all almost in tears praying that God spare us this time. I look in the back and Sheets us awake, eyes open smilig at total peace. He later told me he was excited that maybe god was taking him that day. Great for the faith, but fuck dying in a van full of assholes via tornado in Illinois. thats too many miserable things in one sentence. We finally get to our hotel and everyone is chilled out. Somehow during the corse of the conversation, pete shook his dick at someone and we made fun of his unshaven manliness. So while in the shower, he shaves everything except his balls. Then tells us about it. On here it sounds gay. In real life it was the funniest thing anyone has talked with me about. that was indeed funny as balls.
We then, proceded to bushnell to set up camp. We stopped at a ponderosa, They had a sign that said, (we have sweet tea!) so of course eveyone wanted to stop. Well Joey and I being total mommas boys knew that sweet tea was going to blow asses. I tried to explain it to pete and sheets, that It was the north. I was from the north, and they don't do sweet tea there. I said, and i quote, they dumped sugar in cold regular assed tea, its not going to be sweet, its going to be grainy and disgusting. They paid 1.75 for a 12 oz shitty sweet tea, and were all bummed out about it. We had to sit in line for hours waiting to get in the gate. Meanwhile, Retard green temporary hairsprayed mohawk Youth group church punks were running amok acting like crazy people. Synical as we were, we shittalked everyone around us for about 2 hours. Sheets got really mad and said. Huh, I'd much rather be on a church trip with them then to be sitting in a van full of guys Talking about Dirty Stuff! wow. That week we played a generator stage every single day, and had a pretty good following each day. It was cool. The impromptu stage wanted us to coem back for the drawing, and kind of winked at us, so that we could play for solid state. They said that we were going to get picked more than likely based on who voted for us. They just neededour cd to give to Solid state. Foreknown had the Top name on the cd it was thei
foreknown/IROM split
When they were calling bands out, they called Foreknown. The guy doing the drawing looked at me with a really puzzled face when sam and the guys in foreknown started freaking out and ran up to sign up. So life goes.
So, the girl i had met at cornerstone the prior year, who was cool as shit, cute, and from new york told me she wasn't going to be there. Suddenly i see this chick Running at our van screaming JAKE JAKE!!!! It was her, i was pretty stoked to see her. We said that we would meet once we got in. Suddenly i felt like i shouldn't be around that girl. I dont know if it was a deep seeded fear of getting head over heels for her and then living 15 hours away, or what it was, but i knew that i couldn't get attatched to her. Once again, for the second time in my life, I was a total asshole to a girl in an uncalled for manner. She really wanted to hang out, and I knew that hanging out with her coudl lead to bad news, so i hung out as much as possible, but not leaving any alone time situations. She came to the camp one time to see if i was there, I told the guys that i wasn't there and hid in my tent. She asked if they had seen me and everyone said no. Except for Sheets..... Motherfucker.... He said, Whatever guys he's right there in his tent. So, i had to get out of my tent, and go hang out with her. Alot of my friends from here were at cornerstone so we would go and chill out at their camps too alot. it was just fun. One of my old friends and I hung out the last night at cornerstone just sitting there chiling look at stars and shit like that. She was cool. Total grown up tho. Around 5:40 am the weather started turning to shit again, so we broke camp, picked up our trash, and headed back to JC as fast as ole snake eyes would go. We made it home in just under 11 hours.
I guess a day or so later, we had a show in asheville with a kiss before dying and throwing myself (who would combine and make a band called secret lives soon after) at this place called area 51. It was on 51 wall street, in an arcade eque room with blacked out walls. It was PACKED and all the kids seemed into us. Eric rogers and Courtney came to that show. (see. Oh jakey don't hate me) it was good to see him, it had been a while since we hand hung out before. He is a solid guy, and probably one of my closest friends. As soon as we got home from tour and had a few days off, God called Sheets and told him to quit the band. Sheets told me, Then tried to say that he didn't tell me, by that time we had Recurited Aaron Free. He had a full sleeve, and knew how to play guitar, and was in a band called In the Midst of Plenty. Good band. Aaron was a good fit, he was a wildass, carefree, and sweet. He's still that way. He also was lude and at times vulgar. Which fit our personalitites pretty well.
Wes had this other band called The Fever. My favorite band in history. Wes had this croony high pitched, dirty, crackling rock and roll voice that reminded me of angus young if only he was really southern, and had a higher voice. That guy can really do no wrong musically.
"City's the Jungle, he is the KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAINNNG WOW!"
That summer we played alot of shows, most which i can't remember. But i do remember This one.
We played at viking hall in bristol outside on a battle of the bands. The winner got to open for Skillet. I didn't care about that shit, we had a box full of harvest earth records shirts we eneded to sell.
We played, and we won. Then I had to wait for 2 hours and we never got to play. They gave us a ticket for a free8 hour recording on a fostex 8 track and i got my picture taken with skillet, who then told me that i needed to follow my dream and some day i might get to play an out of town show, or do a little touring. Then they went and got on thier BUS. I got back in our van, that still smelled like a rolling nutsack and went home.
****note 9 months later i recieved a suspicious package at my parents, when i opened it, grey dust blew out in my face, i kind of freaked and threw it out my front door, Of course my mom Calls 911 immediately inspite of my distain for calling the cops. Its one of my parent's friends or whatever. He picks the package up looks in it, and says, its a picture of you with some real "funny" looking guys.... My dad takes it out, and says, its you and that band! Wow what a fag! Thanks dad.
My anthrax scare was a picture of me with my black/pink swoop hair and Skillet.
oh well, Win some/lose some.
The last big show of the summer was hearts at stake fest. The assembly sponsored it, it was a cool show. A lot of kids came. The only bummer was dylan seals doing sound and fucking with me via monitor while we played. Other than that, it was killer.
By this time i was dating Crystal. She had came to a few shows, i was driving to carson newman a few times a month to see her, all was well. I went back to school that following semester. I was now working at hot topic, and taking a few classes at northeast. That December I asked crystal to marry me. She laughed in my face. Then said yes. That was pretty cool.
We did another Tour that winter with A farewell to Arms (corey crowder) Pete had quit the band and now Eric rogers was playing bass. It was pretty cool, we played with dead to fall in nashvill and Arrogant Sons of bitches in atlanta. Nothing was really over the top impressive. Alot of our shows got cancelled. but nonetheless it was fun.
I rang in the new year with my wife. I haven't spent one new years with her since. Due to shows and work.
Thats 2003
free the three
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