January 3, 2022 marked my 20th anniversary at MMR! Imagine helium balloons affixed to my office furniture, a just-opened personalized desk clock with a bow on top placed to the right of my laptop, and the sounds of champagne corks popping in the background. Or, if reality is more your bag, imagine a cold and grey Monday in Boston with The Replacements providing background music as I type away and the low, winter sun steadily slinks below the horizon while I contemplate whether to heat up some Dinty Moore or order a burrito.
Either way – it’s a party!
I could easily pen a column about the past two decades covering MI, including amusing (maybe) anecdotes from work-related travel around the globe, stories of immensely rewarding interviews with industry heavyweights (as well as conversations gone horribly wrong), instances of egregiously embarrassing typos (most of them weren’t my fault – honest!), encounters with celebrities (and those who fancy themselves celebrities), and the like, but… meh. You get the point. It’s been good fun and I enjoy the work.
There – now onto the really good stuff.
You want to start 2022 off on a good foot? Want to feel invigorated about the power of music to change lives for the better and to reaffirm both your belief in the goodness of humankind and the value of working in our industry? Yeah. Let’s do that.
On December 31, the folks at J.B. Hart Music Co., Inc. in Grand Junction, Colorado shared a story on Facebook about how a customer who… Hell, their post does justice to this tale far better than any clumsy retelling of mine would:
This is Fallon. Over the last couple of years, he would visit the store from Montrose. His request each time was to play the “Pantera” guitar, meaning the Dean Dimebag Darrell ML Guitar. We were shocked he knew some Dimebag riffs. Fallon is impacted by Williams Syndrome and has an excellent knowledge and a love for music. His dream was to own this guitar.
Eight months ago, when he was in the store playing it, another customer took notice of Fallon. It moved this customer so much he returned to the store later, purchased the guitar, and asked us to give the guitar to Fallon anonymously the next time we saw him.
However, we didn’t see Fallon until today. We tried finding him to no avail. Today, his family came in the store, and we learned they had moved to Texas and returned this week for a visit. It was a wonderful experience to gift Fallon his dream guitar as a gift from a kind stranger. His mom burst into tears, and Fallon beamed with excitement. It was a special moment. There are still good people in this world.
Here are a few photos, a couple showing off his dive bomb face. (He is really proud of that face)
Whether you’re on Facebook or not (I grudgingly am. For now…), whether you enjoy and actively engage with social media or not (I do not…), I strongly encourage seeking this post out. As of this writing, the thing has over 123,000 “likes” and over 5,200 comments – including one from Pantera’s official account (“This is amazing. Congrats Fallon!”). Talk about “Believe in Music” – this is real-deal inspiration right here, ladies and gents.
Whether you appreciate metal guitar or not (I do), whether you enjoy Pantera or Dean Guitars or not (I do), whether you know the folks at J.B. Hart Music or not (I don’t, but you can bet I’m reaching out to them and hope to change that), this is the kind of news to kick off a new year with. This is the type of story that hopefully strengthens your commitment to the line of work you’ve chosen for yourselves and validates the hours of hard work you’ve put in over the years – and the hard work yet to come.
