January 23, 2010
It's Thomas Charles' birthday today. He's 27 and actually has a job (he was in the Peace Corp in Peru for over two years). Speaking of which, late last week he sent me this email:

Dad,
I know you probably heard this way too much at KSLX but Bill [Glenn] had a ZZ Top CD in the other night and Just Got Paid Today came on. Holy Moses that's a bad ass song. Talk about standing the test of time, who can't relate to "Just got paid today, got myself a pocket full of change" backed by a mean guitar riff? I gotta say I'm proud they were my first concert. Bragging rights!

—Tomcat

Funny what having a job and getting a paycheck can do for one's maturity level. Ha. And, by the way, after his first concert at the Phoenix Coliseum I took him backstage where he got to meet guitar god Billy Gibbons. Although Tomcat thought it was cool, it probably wasn't the best thing a dad could do for future expectations: "Hey dad, we're going to see Green Day tonight, can you get me back stage?"

No, son, I cannot. I shot my entire celebrity cred with one of the only rock stars I actually knew at the time (although I used to get annual Christmas cards from Billy, I haven't heard from him in a long time).

"The heart of rock 'n' roll is still beating."
—Huey Lewis And The News