John, like all youngsters, believed in a lot of things both real and imagined. Also like a lot of kids, he got teased a lot growing up for the things he liked and the things he did. Sometimes teasing makes kids wimpy, sometimes it makes them strong and sometimes, he makes them rock musicians.
"They don't!" some snot-nosed kid would taunt.
"They do too!" Johnny would yell back.
"No they don't," some whiny little girl would chime in. "And I know because my daddy's a newspaper man!"
"They do-do-do-do!" Johnny would scream and then take off running clutching his favorite lunchbox close to his chest. After the chanting voices were out of earshot, Johnny, usually a little out of breath and face streaming with tears, would sit down in the cool grass and relax. He'd wipe his tear-drenched cheeks in the sleeve of his 8-button shirt his mom made him and turn his treasured possession over in his little hands.
Looking down at the slightly dented face painted on his clanky metal lunchbox (complete with matching thermos), Johnny would say confidently, "You do so. I know you do. You DO play your own instruments.... dontcha Mike?!" Then, he'd open the lunchbox, finish a half-eaten twinkie and pull out the small green-knit cap from behind the thermos. (Most people don't realize that Michael Nesmith was responsible for starting the rock-musicians-wearing- knitted-stocking-caps craze.) Feeling better, Johnny would wonder home singing "What am I doin' hangin' round? I should be on that train and gone...."
When Johnny was big enough to be called John, he tried playing the geetar like his hero Michael Blessing Nesmith, but his fingers weren't quite right for the instrument, so his mother (a Micky Dolenz fan) bought the shy lad a set of drums and away he went. Not exactly following in the footsteps of his hero, Nez, but marching to the beat of a similiar drum.
Years later, John found there was more to music than just the Monkees (no comments on that, please--thank you). He found a little group out of Seattle set his foot to tapping, named The Posies (the group--not his foot). Armed with a bizarre, but musical diverse musical taste and quite a bit of talent, John set out to join the wide-world of music.
Once he found three other musicians who didn't laugh hysterically at him when he explained how he came to play the drums--he knew he was home and became a Regular Einstein.... just don't tell him that the "M" in Einstein's theory doesn't mean Monkee; the group hasn't broken it to him yet.
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