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Despite a sour experience in fifth grade, when Johnny James Qualley was kicked out of band — “I didn’t like the program. I rebelled at a young age,” he said — Qualley found himself, as a young man, improbably immersed in music. He wasn’t playing it — the skills tend to lag after a grade-school drop-out — but in most other ways, his life was tied to music.

Living in Las Vegas, he worked in record stores and did promotions for concerts, and even super-cool stuff like buying cognac for rapper Ice T, erecting scaffolding for Grateful Dead shows, and pulling the cloak off the gargoyle used by metal band, Danzig.

“But I realized the only way to really have fun was to be on-stage, playing,” said Qualley, while walking around downtown Denver, his home for the last 15 years. “At 20-21, I realized I was surrounded by it, seeing all these great people on-stage. Something inside of me wanted to be those people, and I acted on it. It’s fun to be a fan, but it’s really fun to be a musician.”

VIEW FULL ARTICLE FROM THE ASPEN TIMES

———-> highlighted photos from a camera that traveled the globe with me back in ’08 & ’09 just found this old phone and loved some of the photos!

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———-> December 12, 2012

Merry X-Mas LA STYLE

———-> 12/10/2011 – St. George, UT

Dance party Utah Style!

———-> 12/10/2011 – St. George, UT

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1/7/2012——>
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For Doug Frye….

At Peace: Amado Nervo
Translated by: Quinn Wagner

Very near my setting sun, I bless you life, because you never gave me neither unfulfilled hope… Nor unfair work, nor undeserved sorrow. Because I see, at the end of my rough way.. That I, was the architect of my own destiny….and if I extracted sweetness, or bitterness of things… It was because I put the sweetness or bitterness in them… When I planted rose bushes… I always harvested roses.

Certainly, winter is going to follow my youth….

But you didn’t tell me that may is eternal.

I found without a doubt
Long my nights of pain
But you didn’t promise me only good nights
And in exchange I had some peaceful ones I loved
The sun caressed my face
Life you owe me nothing
Life we are at peace

You will be missed!

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