Michael, 45

'Two Nights a Rock Star'

“I just showed a video to my buddy … this morning from one New Year’s Eve in Montana, I was singing in a band. It was awesome. We all got a hundred bucks each. They paid for one night of our hotel room. And the funny story is that two of the people in the band were electricians. So, me being a painter, working on job sites, I was singing and being annoying. And my friend Larry, another electrician, came over and was like, ‘Louie is mad at you.’ I guess I was being annoying. And he was like, ‘Someone needs to shut that painter up.’ And then, like a week later, he heard me actually sing, and he was like, ‘You want to sing in our band?’ No, shit. Last week you hated me, and now you’re asking me to do this? The band was called Unleashed. We did covers. Led Zepplin. Van Halen. Mostly 80s rock and some newer stuff. Yeah, I mean, 70 people in the bar. Well, it’s funny because the bass player Louie, he’s this biker dude. And he was the most nervous – like, he was puking before we went on. That’s how nervous he was. It’s like, man, you’re the toughest dude in the group, man. Come on. You’re our rock. You’re the one puking? He said he had motion sickness and that he was nervous, because we had to do 40 songs. Four sets, ten songs a set. I was single at the time. I got up on stage and said, ‘I’m in room number 128! Come see me!’ after I had a couple beers. You could drink as much beer as you wanted, for free. Dangerous. I learned that lesson because we were all nervous the first night. You had to play two nights. The first night, we tore it up. The second night, I had to sing those 40 songs hung over. I was like, alright, lesson learned – tear it up on night number two. Take it easy on the first night. The band moved away. I sang in another band. I certainly would sign in another band. I guess I’m just spinning my wheels right now. I’ll figure it out, it’s just a matter of time.”

Photograph and story documented by Stephen Speckman.