When Rock Gods Fall Angels Pick Them Back Up

Picture not one but dual weekly visits with a Preacher Man. Each conversation having nothing to do with his industry of ministry. Just two middle aged men wandering between guitar riffs and drum beats striking a single chord of well thought experiences and defeats by way of reconnecting with harmony. A trickling stream shoots from open sores cut into the flesh of Mother Earth making music not love for it is what we think that often times fuels our indifferent reasons to keep digging. It is not The Preacher Man versus the Radio Jock. If life was a fishing trip the journey toward the windswept lake with its whitecaps striking against a lost seagulls butt would without mistake be a lyric lost somewhere between fate and destiny. We agree on one thing; 90's Rock shouldn't be lost on a shelf or stuffed into an IPod sitting in folders labeled private jams. Grunge and Post Ramones Punk happened and it took a lot of fans with it. Fans that fell into holes sketched out by sympathy. Anyone that made it out learned to empathize making Alice and Chains, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Chili Peppers, Metallica, REM and Green Day a wave rather than trembling shivers of where we've been. The Preacher Man said to me, "People of the south have forgotten the roots of Lynyrd Skynyrd and Marshall Tucker. Those long drawn out riffs blessed with bent notes were masterfully cut so thin that it became cotton candy delivered to a growing mans reputation. If fans of music rather than generation spent more time listening, discovering and taking in the pen scratches of writers that felt barely nothing in the 1990's they'd have more than what's currently playing on radio free America." Maybe this is why Alanis Morissette hit Jimmy Kimmel Live last Tuesday night expressing true support for Green Day front man Billie Joe Armstrong. I tend to call it listening beyond sound. Others weigh in on relocating lost art. A quick update: Billie busted some guitar and his record label and friends didn't let him travel too far. One of music's most prolific writers and all star concert attractions was behind the walls of reality seeking ways to better display. RollingStone Magazine reports Morissette performed a yearning, slowed and stripped-down cover of "Basket Case." Touched by Armstrong's troubles, Morissette also spoke out in defense of Armstrong in an interview with Billboard, showing her admiration for the rocker and making it clear she hopes he will get the assistance he needs. "We're all figuring it out, so let's just support the fragile artist," she said. "I've always been an advocate and supporter of artists and Billie Joe to me – he deserves to be bowed down to . . . He's been in this industry for a long time and so for him to experience the consequence of a system that kind of set it up for him to fail is a travesty to me." Morissette also praised Armstrong's courage. "I think he's braver than I am," she said. "Also women being upset are deemed hysterical. Men being upset are deemed valiant. It's a little more dangerous for a woman to flip out in that way." Catch the video And you come back...get yourself reacquainted with the artistry that once painted your reasons for loving Rock.