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On Friday April 7, 2000 (Jeremy's 25th Birthday) I had the opportunity to have an hour long drum lesson with the man himself! It was honestly the best hour of my life. Jeremy is my idol. He is the reason why I started playing the drums (and I told him this while i was in my lesson!) so this is how it went:
The lesson was originally supposed to be at 7pm, but then they called and changed it to 6. That was a little difficult, cause my mom works during the day, and we thought we were going to be really late.
We ended up getting there with 4 minutes to spare (with A LOT of speeding, and cursing, and freakin out!). Well, Jeremy was running a little late, so me and my mom were talking to James (he works there)
and it was also James' b-day that day...so we had a little conversation with him.
Then all of a sudden, from behind me, I hear jeremy's voice. My eyes go all wide, and i start giggling like a madman! so then, i didn't want to turn around, cause i was laughing so much, and my mom and james were laughing at me.
so then jer comes up in front of me and i'm still giggling like a mad man! And then, James goes "Jeremy, i'd like you to meet Katie" and he shook my hand, and i started giggling again!
(i think he thought james said "kate" though, cause he kept calling me kate through the whole lesson)
ok, so then my mom goes to him "it'll be amazing if you actually get her to talk, cause she's been screaming for the past week!" But i was SO shy in there!! i couldn't say anything! (he's very intimidating, even though he doesn't TRY to be...but...he's JEREMY!!)
and i couldn't play!! i was SO nervous!!
so then, we went downstairs, to the room with the drums set up. While we're going down the stairs, I say Happy Birthday to him, and I mentioned that the entire Clumsy Congress says Happy Birthday too, and he was like "aww, how sweet!" so anyways, i got a kit on one side of the room, and he got a pretty, shiny kit on the other side (it was a small room), and there was a tape recorder in the middle. (we recorded the lesson, so that i can go back and hear how it's supposed to sound later)
My mom came down for a few seconds to take a picture of me and Jer, and so we took a picture in front of "my kit" and he goes "i'm sure this picture will be on the internet in a few days!" and i looked at him and i'm like "i don't have a scanner!" and he laughed.
so then, i had to play something for him, that way he could figure out the kind of stuff that i should learn. i was SO nervous! i'm normally not very good in front of a crowd, but this was JEREMY! my idol! the REASON why i was playing!! so basically, i didn't know what the hell i was doing! i felt like such an idiot!
So, I just played a really basic beat, cause i couldn't think of anything to play! (like, bass, snare, bass bass, snare--the simplist thing to play on the drums!) and i just looked at him and kept laughing!
so then, most of the rest of the lesson, Jeremy played stuff, mostly left hand exercises, cause that will apparently improve my drumming A LOT. And he said he uses a lot of that left handed stuff on the songs on Happiness...And he gave me an example, and played Annie for me.
Then, i was asking him a few questions about some of his other songs, so, he played Starseed for me and then Naveed, Lying Awake, and One Man Army. Then he was asking which songs I can play along to, and so I said a bunch of songs, but when I mentioned Car Crash, he said "really?! you can play Car Crash? that's one of the more difficult songs!"
So then, we played Car Crash together for a bit, and i screwed up!! (what else is new?! i was so nervous! and normally I can actually play that song!)
so he asked me if there was anything that i needed help with, and i honestly could not think of anything! so then we were just joking around that i was like, the "pro" drummer who knew everything. (i'm far from that!!) then, Jeremy played a samba type beat thing, and he actually screwed up! *L* i think that was the weirdest thing...seeing Jeremy not know what he's doing! then he goes "well, i know what i'm practicing tomorrow!"
then, at the end of the lesson, for the last few minutes we did this thing where we play four bars together, then he does a fill while i'm still playing a backbeat, and then reversing it. I had NO idea what the hell to do for my fills!
i'm really bad at fills, always have been, always will be. so then, i was just basically laughing and saying "i can't!!" and he's like "yeah!! you can!!"
during the lesson, we talked about the smashing pumpkins being on the summersault tour, (i asked him why they chose SP, of all bands) and he goes "hopefully they won't get booed of the stage!" and through out the whole lesson, there was some guy in the room next to us who was practicing single/double strokes (the stuff i HATE to practice, cause it's so boring!) so every time jeremy would write something in my book and it was quiet, we would hear this guy just drumming away, and we both started laughing.
after the lesson was over, we were standing around, talking for a bit. another thing i noticed as soon as i saw him was that he wasn't wearing a "7" shirt. i asked him why, and he said "i'm not working tonight!" and i said "yeah you are!" so then he looks at his black t-shirt underneath his blue long sleaved shirt, and he's like "nope. no seven! but i can hold up 7 fingers!" (and he did that! how cute is he?!) and we both laughed again.
then he looked through my OLP scrapbook that i had brought with me to show him, and the first couple of pages are pictures that i drew, and stuff I won, and stuff like that. so he looks at the picture that i drew of him, and i say "umm..that's not the best thing i've ever drawn!" and he's like "hey! at least i'm smiling!" then he flips through some more, and finds the letter that i got from the PPU when i won the contest, and he's like "oh! you won the PPU contest?!" and i'm like "yeah! i keep your drum sticks and skin in a place where no one is allowed to touch them!"
and he laughed some more. then he got to the actual articles that i have, and he noticed some old ones from 97, and he's like "WOW! how long have you been a fan!?" and i'm like "about 5 years, but i didn't start saving articles until about the time that clumsy came out" then, he was looking through all the pages, and i felt bad, cause i knew he wanted to go home, so i said "you don't have to look through ALL the pages, i just wanted you to see it!" so he looks through a bit more, and he seemed pretty impressed. i told him that i had another binder full of stuff that
i printed out from the net, and he asked me if i read the articles every night before i go to sleep, and i said "nah...i'm not THAT obsessed...YET!" and then he was like "so, what would you do if we weren't around anymore?!" and i'm like "i'd probably kill myself!" and he said something like he would always be drumming anyways. ;) so then he signed my cd for me (neither of us had sharpies, but i had my pencil case, so i let him have his choice of pens) so he's like "whoa! lots of pens! are you into art?" and then i showed him my agenda (which has "our lady peace"
written all over the place, and he just laughed. so then he asked me "do you want my drum sticks" then he explained that they weren't actually "HIS," (the stamped ones that say O.L.P. on them) but they were the ones that he had used all week long! then we were leaving, going back up stairs, and he handed me my jacket, then as we were going out the door, i said "WAIT!" and he turned around, and i took a picture of him and he said "thank you!" so then we walked by the guy who was playing in the room next to us (he had the door closed) and jer goes "look! he's still playing!" and we laughed.
then we were back upstairs and i wished jeremy a happy birthday again, and he shook my hand again, and my mom's....and it was SO cool...best hour of my life!! THANK YOU JEREMY!!
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