The Gritty Sound of Texas: Inside Jay Hooks' Rock 'n' Blues World

The Gritty Sound of Texas: Inside Jay Hook’s Rock and Blues World

[Speaker 3]

One, two, three, four. Jay Hooks is a Texas blues rock guitarist and songwriter from Houston. With a career spanning since the late 1980s, he's known for his searing guitar tone, raw vocals, and high-energy performances that blend gritty Texas blues with rock swagger.

Influenced by legends like Stevie Ray Vaughan, he's released several albums, including the recent Tequila and Bullets, and has toured across the U.S. and Europe. Today, the Trout sits down with this Houston firebrand to talk music, life on the road, and what keeps the blues burning. Now here's The Trout with Jay.

Enjoy.

[The Trout]

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Give him a call today. Let's find your rich. When did you pick up your first guitar?

How old were you?

[Jay Hooks]

I was 10, and my mom had a guitar and was going to take guitar lessons, and I think she took one and put it in the attic. Well, you know, I was a little kid, but about eight, nine years old, they let you take band, you know, like in the fifth grade. I can't remember, fifth grade or something.

[The Trout]

I think it was like, yeah, it was the fifth grade.

[Jay Hooks]

Yeah, I started with a trumpet, and they taught me to read music. I don't even, I can read music now if I write all the notes in with a pencil. I can't even read, and I could sight read.

I mean, I was really good at it then, but anyway, I taught myself out of a Mel Bay book. I don't know if you remember those, but when we were young. That's what I learned out of, oh yeah.

I learned, you know, I taught myself should be coming around the mountain, man. I remember it, and then, you know, the guy next door taught me Sweet Home Alabama, and I played that for, you know, a year or so, you know, and then Stairway to Heaven. You know, I played that for a couple years.

I mean, that was all I knew, but I played it all the time until I learned something else, but of course, you know, I started learning by ear, you know. I see it now, I mean, you can learn anything off YouTube, man. I've been having a blast, you know.

All the stuff that I, some of the things, you know, I go back and look, and some of the guys, you know, they'll do it one way or another. I'll look at all of it, and I'm like, okay, well, here's the notes I'm playing wrong, and I'm gonna steal that, you know, so. Anyway, but I learned everything by ear.

That's how we all learned. The guys like, you know, our age, you know. That's how we learned, you know, and anyway, and yeah, the music, I don't know, I was like, I think I was 13 or 14 when MTV came out.

I hated it. I watched it every day because I love music, but I hated it because it was, I was like, I like Leonard Skinner, and I like, you know, they would play Devil Went Down to Georgia every once in a while. I like that, you know.

I like all the country and blues, and, you know, I always joke around that I'm like, well, I like all the rock and roll until 1980, and then I hate it all, you know, but I'm kidding, but, you know.

[The Trout]

Well, yeah, it was pop-oriented, so.

[Jay Hooks]

It just, you know, I was into Stevie Ray, man. When I heard Stevie Ray, all of a sudden, I'm like, okay, I wanna be a blues guy, you know. I was into Skinner and Molly Hatchett and the Southern Rock, and when I heard Stevie Ray, I was like, oh, man, I wanna, you know, I was already into Hendrix, but I couldn't even figure the Hendrix out, man.

[Speaker 3]

Oh, yeah.

[Jay Hooks]

I didn't even have the ear for it. Well, I started learning that Stevie Ray, and he was so clean. Then the Hendrix started making sense, so then I started going back and learning, you know, the Hendrix in any way.

An older guy, when I was a kid, and to make a short story long, but an older guy told me, hey, I was totally crazy about Stevie Ray when that first record came out, and, you know, I was 13 or 14 when Texas Flood came out, and this guy told me, he goes, you go buy any Johnny Winters record, and he'll quit yapping about that Stevie Ray. He was an old guy, you know, and, of course, I went down and bought Second Winters by accident, and, of course, it's one of my favorite records to this day. That's one of my favorites.

I bought Still Alive and Well, and so I was totally hooked on Johnny Winters, you know. Anyways, though, and, you know, I remember the first time somebody told me, hey, listen to this guy, and they played me Billy Gibbons, and it played ZZ Top for me. I'll never forget it.

It was Tejas, and, of course, that's my favorite ZZ Top record to this day.

[The Trout]

That was your third or fourth, third album, I think.

[Jay Hooks]

Yeah, I think so. Third, fourth record. It's in the six-pack.

I know that. Yeah. You know, that's what I always listen to all the time.

I never get tired of Billy Gibbons, of course, you know, the first six records, but anyway.

[The Trout]

The funny thing about them is Billy's a couple years older than me, and I was talking to somebody the other day. I had these conversations, and I actually did a podcast. I don't know, not too long ago, about are the artists getting so old because of the ones we grew up.

You know, Billy's 76 now, I think.

[Jay Hooks]

75, 76. Yeah, I knew he was in his 70s.

[The Trout]

Eric Klebner just turned 81. Oh, wow. You know, Jagger's 80-something.

Keith is 80-something. And I was talking to somebody about it, and I said, why do you guys, why do you think they still do it? And they made a comment.

I never talked about it. I was talking about Mick Jagger and Keith Ridge. And the guy, he's a great musician over in the Netherlands.

He said, can you imagine him sitting in front of TV and just doing nothing but watching TV? And I went, no. He said, that's why they keep doing it.

Because what else are they going to do? Yeah. And you came along, and you did some for several years, and then you took a break, a siesta, so to speak.

And then you kind of came back.

[Jay Hooks]

Right. I mean, it's, I'll tell you what, it's totally different. Man, I was, you know, I was traveling, and we were, you know, going to Europe and doing all this stuff, you know.

And, man, I, you know, I got to where I was drinking a lot. You know the story anyway. And I thought, I'm going to quit playing guitar, and I'll quit drinking.

Well, then it got worse. So, yeah, I had to sort all that out. And, you know, anyway.

But, you know, it was a lot different then. This was probably 2005 or so. And I just, man, I quit for a while.

And, you know, and I sorted everything out, and I got to where, man, I, you know, I don't know why I did. You know, now I'm questioning it all. But, anyway, I started playing again.

And, man, everything's different. It's just, you know, the clubs are different. The crowds are different.

The people are different. Yeah. You know, and then, man, there's all these cover bands now, which I'm, hey, them guys are, I see some good cover bands, and they're playing all the stuff we like.

The 70s, the Stones, the Skinner, you know. Yeah. You know, they're doing all the cool stuff.

I don't hear them doing 80s bands that much. I hear them doing a lot of 70s. That was a synthesizer.

Yeah. And Eagles, and, you know, I see, and they're good at it too, you know. And, anyway, you know, and that's the stuff that I grew up listening to, you know.

I mean, when I really started playing guitar, the metal thing was happening. You know, the 80s, man, everybody, I was, you know, I'm like, oh, blues is where it's at, you know. And, man, I think I learned a bunch of metal just so I could play with somebody, you know, back then.

And, anyway, but, you know, back in the 90s, man, we were playing everywhere, man, and all these clubs that were, I mean, it just, some of them just aren't there anymore, you know. The way, you know, I mean, these places would be packed all the time. And, sometimes, now, I'm like, man, does anybody even go out anymore, you know.

[The Trout]

You know, here's the thing. I think it's interesting to me because I've interviewed hundreds of people and watching them. Everybody tours, you know, the business.

You've been doing it a long time. You don't tour, you don't make any money. You got to sell merch, you got to do touring.

Everybody brings that music, but you're not going to make any less this year in the top 10 percent and make a lot of money off streaming. And, well, it was interesting. I was talking to your PR guy.

He called me the other day and we were talking about nobody drinks anymore. They're not buying, you know, when you go to, they just want to go hear the music. I guess the Gen X people, I've heard this from more than one person, they're not drinkers.

So, that didn't have anything to do with music, but, you know, people want to go have, go listen to a band and get a beer or whatever and hang out, especially at your local venues. But, the other thing, when you started, when you referred to your first album, was it digital or was it analog back then?

[Jay Hooks]

We did the first, no, all that stuff was on tape.

[The Trout]

That's what I thought.

[Jay Hooks]

We did all that stuff to tape. Now, the last one, the third one I did, we did it, I did it in a guy's duplex in Austin. We tracked everything and did it all in Pro Tools.

That was my first experience with that. I don't know, that record was a little more produced. It was not, it was a good record, I thought, but it just, we kind of liked the raw sound.

You know, when we made this record, we were like, man, let's make one like the first record. Let's make something raw. Let's go for that 80s ZZ Top, kind of, you know, whatever, like, cheap, you know, the Deguayo, we were watching, you know, there's that Rock Palace from the 80s, ZZ Top.

I was watching that, and we were like, man, let's make a record like that. Look at these guys, you know. Of course, it's, man, it's great stuff.

I mean, I love that stuff.

[The Trout]

Well, they weren't, they weren't running a bunch of stuff. You know, they weren't running, they weren't trying to affect their tone with pedals. They just had an amp, and put stuff, I mean, I don't even know, all the times I've seen Billy, I don't even know if he probably, I don't even know if he uses any pedals.

He probably has something.

[Jay Hooks]

Somebody told me, because I saw him, in the Wah Solo, happened on, waiting on the bus, I'm like, what happened? They got to this tech, does this work, the Wah Wah, so, you know, Billy doesn't have any pedals in front of him, you know, and I, that's, so I'm like, well, hey, whatever works, but, you know, I'm the same way, I mean, I don't have a pedal board. I don't have any, I use a tuner, you know, in front of me, and people ask me all the time, man, what do you use?

And I go, a tuner, you know, so, you know, anyway.

[The Trout]

What does that do? What kind of effect is that?

[Jay Hooks]

It doesn't help much.

[The Trout]

I bend it out of tune on every song I'm tuning, you know, because I'm bending everything out of tune, but, but, you know, here's the thing, though, people that I grew up with, and you grew up with, Hendrix had a fuzz face, and a wah-wah, and then he used his amp for the power, and all that stuff, but there wasn't any hiding behind pedals and effects. You couldn't hide it, you know, those old blues guys like Freddie King, and all those guys, B.B. King, they were just straight into the amp, and so you couldn't, if you sucked at playing, you couldn't hide it behind, oh, let's put a little delay on it, you can't hide it anyway. No, but you still, you know what I mean, because somebody like you just goes up, plugs it in, and you get your tuner, and, okay, I'm in tune, let's rock, let's go, and, and that, that gives it, in my opinion, that sound that you grew up on, and I listened to, the raw sound, you know.

[Jay Hooks]

Right, man, a Wah and a Marshall, you know, and, I mean, listen to Angus Young, man, those ACDC records are some of the greatest records, I mean, Highway to Hell, I remember I got that, my mom didn't like it, you know, I was probably 12 years old, or something, but anyway, but, I mean, listen to the tone on those records, man, it's a Marshall Plexi on 10, I mean, there's no Tube Screamer, there's, there's no, you know, there's nothing else, man, and what a tone, both in Malcolm Young and Angus Ad, you know, and, anyway, I, that's the kind of thing I like, I mean, you look at Albert Collins and Freddie King, both played through a quad, wide open, a twin with four 12s, I mean, come on, you know, that's a little loud for me, I, I've got to where I really like that, you know, I like playing loud, so, I'd rather have a 40 watt amp, you know, they're making these 30 watt, 15 watts, I don't think it's quite enough for me, but, you know, right around 30, about 40, 50 watts, I like it, and you can get it pretty loud where that amp is, and, that amp will start breaking up a little bit, you know,

[The Trout]

and, I never forget, I was in Kansas, I lived in Kansas City for a long time, and I went to see Lonnie Mack, Lonnie played like out of a twin, and, he was on a, it was a small venue, you know, a friend of mine, he says, let's go watch Lonnie Mack, I said, fine, so, he's up above, it's like ear level, he had that thing cranked up, it was piercing, and I remember the next day, we came back to work, my friend and I worked together, a couple of days later, and he says, I got ringing in my ears from that, I think I've lost some hearing, I said, oh, you have, you just don't know yet,

[Jay Hooks]

and I said,

[The Trout]

and that was just a basic, you know, I think he was playing out of a twin, but it was fricking loud, and there wasn't a lot back, you know, it's been on a small venue, there wasn't a lot of, reinforcement, you know, some of it's coming out, but a lot of it's right there, and, I think, the O'Purist, I remember Joe Bonamassa saying one time, he played with Clapton, and he said, he comes out, he's got a twin, monster cable, and a strap, and he sounds like Eric Clapton, and he said, you know, I don't know all the stuff, they turns to get the sound out of it, but he knows what he's doing, I want to ask you a question, you were talking about playing Firebird, do you, do you change the pickup setting, or do you leave it down in the, on the bridge setting, or do you move it around, when you're playing?

[Jay Hooks]

I, I do some funny things, when I'm playing, and I'm not sure what I do sometimes, but, I know, I use the neck pickup, to a certain extent, but I pretty much use the bridge, on the Firebird all the time, now Strat, I get, I use the neck more, if I'm playing, you know, I'll play the neck the most, and then, when I want to get a good bite, like an Albert, you know, if I hit an Albert Collins, kind of lick, or something, I'll throw it down on the bridge, but, for the Fire, the Gibsons, I figured out, you know, I played Strat's for a long time, and I love them, and I think they're one of the greatest, sounding guitar ever, but, my Firebird, man, I, the tone on it, I love it, and I got, a guy just built me a telly, and put me a Firebird pickup, in the treble, and I, I, I've been fooling around, I put a mini in the neck, but, anyway, the, the, the pickup came out, of one of my Firebirds, so, and it's telly, just, oh man, it'll, it still has a kind of piercing, a little, it's not like a, as piercing as a telly is, with single coils, but it still has more bite, than my Firebird, but it's got that, that, that Firebird pickup, oh man, it sounds good on there, so, anyway.

[The Trout]

and also the telly is, it's lighter, it's got to be lighter, than the Firebird, right?

[Jay Hooks]

Yeah, and I, I'm more comfortable, with the Firebird, and I figured out, I like Gibson guitars, with Fender amps, and, and that's all I need, is a, give me a Gibson, a mini hum, I like mini humbuckers, and I like the Firebirds, now, you know, a full humbucker, I can work with that too, but, something about those minis, and like the Les Paul Deluxes, I don't know, they got a little more bite, man, and I like that, you know, and that's right up my alley.

[The Trout]

When I play, I leave it in the middle, both pickups, and then when I want to get more bite, I bring up the, the volume on the back, you know, to give it some more treble, and then, you know, I might do some compression on it, but I, I never did, I could never get where I wanted to go, and then when I play a Strat, you're right, I mean, sometimes, and I know a lot of famous players, they leave it on the bridge pickup, all the time, but when I'm recording, I don't, it's so, it gets a little thin for me, and I think that's what Albert Collins, you know, Albert, he played a Tele, didn't he?

I think it was what he, Albert played, did he play a Tele? I think he did, I'm not really sure.

[Jay Hooks]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[The Trout]

And, and, um, who else was I thinking of? Oh, Buddy Guy, you know, when you hear him play, it's pretty thin, but he, that's what he likes, but he kind of grew up on that, that era. Did you, when you recorded this last album, you cut this last album, did you guys play a lot of live, and just recorded from live, and do overdubs later?

That's what,

[Jay Hooks]

what we did, we recorded everything live, and then, you know, we kind of went back, and if there was something we needed to fix, you know, and pretty much the drums, once the drums were there, you know, I worked on the guitars a little bit, you know, in some spots, and, uh, but, uh, for the most part, it was pretty much live, and, uh, uh, anyway, I, I had a buddy of mine, uh, uh, uh, Jorge, uh, uh, he, uh, played rhythm guitar on it some, um, anyway, uh, and it kind of helped out, you know what I'm saying, to where we kind of did it live, and, and that way I didn't track a bunch of rhythm guitar either.

[The Trout]

Yeah, so you had him playing while you're playing. Yeah, yeah. Well, and I think too, don't you, it's still, even if you're in a studio, playing live still makes a big difference.

There's still something about that, instead of like, okay, you lay this down, I'll lay down, and we'll just, you know, try to get the energy up as we keep laying tracks on it. And like you said, when you had Jorge doing the rhythm, you could do what you did on the regular, and then, you know, do what you gotta do. Right.

And then you get the raw sound, and I think that, it, it's got, it has, I was listening to, um, the title tune, from your last album, the one you just released last year, Tequila and Bullets, and I was listening to that, and I thought, I've heard this tone before. I've heard this, I've heard this tone before. But that's what I liked about it.

[Jay Hooks]

It's just that old Muddy Waters lick, you know, it, and it, anyway, I kind of turned it around a little bit, but, you know, I've heard a lot of guys do it.

[The Trout]

Well everybody, bottom line is, unless you're somebody famous, iconic, you, and even they, still licks. So, when I saw a guitarist last year at this, uh, she was playing, and she got through, and she walked off stage, and I said, I noticed something, and she plays slide, and I said, that's a Johnny Winter lick. And she kind of laughed, and she goes, yep, that's Johnny Winter, I remember that sound.

I said, I guess, but that's what happens to everybody. At this point in the game, playing guitars, with decades of people playing them, you're obviously going to pick up something from somebody else. And I, I think that, you know, I think people like you though, Jay, is the fact that you can keep moving, and doing what you're doing, and still bringing that kind of music, which I think we need.

[Jay Hooks]

Well, I still, hey, I still listen to the same things, I listen to when I learn how to play guitar. You know, I still listen to Tejas, I listen to, I never get tired of Billy Gibbons, I never get tired of Jimi Hendrix, and the Stevie Ray, and the, and the Johnny Winters, it comes and goes. You know what I'm saying?

I'll listen to it for a while, then I'll stop. But I, I always listen to Johnny Winters, I listen to, I listen to Hendrix, and Billy, I never get tired of them. I'll put the first, you know, put Billy the, you know, the first record on the, the Rio Grande Bud, you know, Tejas, you know, Tres Hombres, that's one of my favorites, too, of course.

[The Trout]

Yeah.

[Jay Hooks]

Yeah, I never get tired of that stuff, you know, and, but, you know, I grew up, man, I listened to a lot of this, when I listened to classic rock, it was in the 80s, and they were playing 60s and 70s, you know, and the guys were older than me, that I ran around with, liked all that stuff. You know, people my age didn't like it, they were all, they wanted to go to the club, they wanted to hear, you know, they wanted to go eat eggs and go to the club and dance all night, whatever, I'm like, man, that ain't my thing, you know, I don't know about all that, anyway, but.

[The Trout]

Well, and the part of it is, too, I mean, how many times have you watched Stevie Ray and Austin play Voodoo Child? Right. I mean, he was one of the few people that can actually get close to the real thing when he was alive, he got close, and you know, and the thing about Jimmy, he wasn't that loud, people thought he was extremely loud, I heard other bands that were louder than him, and I always thought, when I went to see him, I thought, oh, my God, it's going to be really loud, and I was like, I've heard other bands after that that were much louder than him, he just had the ability to control his martial feedback so much that it was crazy, it was like it was one person doing it, it's like you're, like you melted with the amp or something, it was weird, and for years, you know, you try to sit down and figure, we were talking about earlier, sit down and try, oh, what was he playing there, how was he doing that? The thing that I like about YouTube is if you watch people live, then you can say, oh, that's how he's doing it, because you hear it, and you go, like, I think he's playing it, oh, no, he's playing it down there, and then you're like, ah, now I know how he does it, and so if you're trying to do, you know, something like that.

[Jay Hooks]

When I'm trying to, hey, if I'm trying to figure out some Jimi Hendrix, man, I'll go pull up a Randy Hanson video, too, and watch that guy, you know what I mean? These guys got it figured out, you know, and of course, man, I'm watching Stevie Ray at the Elma Combo or something, I mean, you know, I saw Stevie Ray three times, and I'll tell you what, I've never seen anybody play guitar like that, and I've seen Billy Gibbons when they kicked off the, oh, I can't remember, the After Burner Tour.

[The Trout]

Oh, yeah, that was in the 80s, yeah.

[Jay Hooks]

They did a private show in Fitzgerald's here in Houston, and they gave out 300 tickets. Well, my buddy worked on his guitars at the guitar store. Short story long, he gave me a couple tickets, so I saw Billy with them, you know, and they were doing just the old stuff, man, and there wasn't any backtrack, and I'll tell you what, Billy, he was good, man, but I don't know, man, Stevie Ray just had something that just, he just would rip your head off, and the only thing I ever figured was if, the only reason I think that's because I never got to see him, I wasn't old enough to see Hendrix, you know, you know.

[The Trout]

Well, that's good, I can tell you, that's good news and bad news, because when you tell people you watch Hendrix, they go, Jesus, how old are you? Well, it was 1970, you can figure it out from there probably. I don't think kids today, younger people, study, I study, you mentioned it, I studied a lot of great musicians when I was growing up, not just rock musicians, you know, classical musicians, people that I thought were fantastic, I just wanted to know about the history, and I was, followed somebody on X, and she talks about music all the time, and she was talking about, this guitar had old wood in it, you know, the real old, the, what did I forget, they called it, and I said, most people, young people don't know what that means, you know, because the wood was 200 years old, they don't know what that means, nor do they care, and the other thing too that you said earlier that I see more and more, is more and more people on tour, like you, go out and have their own guitars made, you know, you said that you had this guy, was this guy in Texas that made this, I mean, this telly for you?

[Jay Hooks]

A friend of mine, and he had built a telly and gave it to me, and I said, well I want one of the Firebird pickups, so he built me that, and I play the, I play that when, I use it recording sometimes, I like it, and I think, like if I got to fly in, I'm going to start carrying it, because I was carrying my Firebird on the plane in a soft case, and putting it in the overhead, and I think I'm going to start carrying that telly just because, like I said, if I break that Firebird, I'm going to be real upset, I think I could replace it, but I, you know,

[Speaker 3]

it's never going to be the same,

[Jay Hooks]

to that guitar, there's no other, the frets are wore out, the pickup, the switch is, I've got to buy a brand new one, that, it's not brand new, but it's never been played,

[Speaker 3]

and I never touch it,

[Jay Hooks]

I never touch, I play it when I break a string, so that tells you, you know, how many guitars I need too, you know, if I break a string, I need another one, but anyway, no, I do like the tellies, and I was getting on a big telly kick here for a while, and I just, man, I'm back on the Firebirds already, you know, but I do, I do like that guitar a lot, and it does have a nice tone to it, and,

[The Trout]

well,

[Jay Hooks]

anyway,

[The Trout]

this is an 87 behind me, that's my favorite guitar,

[Jay Hooks]

that was Paul,

[The Trout]

and people picked it up, they go, can I play it, and they go, oh my god, this is so good, and I said, yeah, but you know, because it's, you talk about your guitar, that's the way I feel about that 87, there's, every one of them has something unique about them, even though they're mass produced to a certain degree, necks are a little different on them, you know, something's a little bit different on them, and that neck on that is just perfect for me, and, I've always been, I'm a sustained guy, so I want to be able to hit a note and bend it up and hold it for about two minutes, so you got,

[Speaker 3]

yeah, exactly,

[The Trout]

15 pounds of wood hanging on you, that makes a difference, I think so, and that's why, I mean, I'm sure that's the way your Firebird is to you, it's like a second hand, or third hand to you, because, you've built it

[Jay Hooks]

into yourself, it's definitely, I'll tell you this, I was playing a Strat, and I'd always played a Strat my whole life, I bought the Firebird, I put it on layaway in 99, when I made the first record, and I had actually made it with a Strat before I bought it, when I bought the guitar, it was so awkward to me, I couldn't get it right on the Strat, I had to make myself play, I was like, it was the most I'd ever spent on any guitar, and, it was like, 1200 bucks, you know, 1999, I'd never spent that kind of money, you can buy a Strat for 500-600 bucks all day long, you know, anyway, and, I had to make myself play it for about a month, and it took me that long before I started feeling, you know, the switch is over here, you know, now when I play a Strat, I knock the switch all over the place, because I'm not used to playing a Strat anymore, you know, I used to, I had it down, but, now I have to really kind of pay attention when I pick up the Strat, but, you know, I just, man, when I got used to it, and I'll tell you what, I, I didn't, I got rid of it, my buddy, I hawked it, man, I'd lost my mind for a minute in 2000, I hawked it, my buddy went and got it, right, and I forgot, you know, I mean, I knew he had it, and I thought, you know, I kind of thought, well, it's his guitar now, well, I started playing again, and I was playing with Mark May, and he shows up, and I go, hey man, you got my guitar, he goes, you got that money on me, I'm like, I got it, and I had it, it was like, I owed him like a thousand bucks, and he had my guitar, and he had my 1961 Bandmaster with the cabinet, and he got, I'm like, man, you're gonna let me have all of it back, you know, I didn't know, I thought, hey, it's yours now, yeah, it's been 20 years anyway, and anyway, so I gave him the money, I got it back, but I'll tell you what, the minute, and I was on a gig, and I put that guitar on, and it was like I was home, it wasn't, you know what I'm saying, it took me, I've been playing a Strat for a couple years in Tele, when I started playing again, I hadn't even touched a Firebird, the day I got it back, I put it on, on that gig, and I never set it down again, and I mean it, there wasn't any learning curve, there wasn't, you know, like I said, the first time I got it, it took me 30 days before, and I was playing every night, playing every night, playing, and I was, I was just, I was so upset, because, you know, it was just giving me hell, you know, the neck felt weird, it was too wide, and the neck, you know, it just felt so much different, and now, you know, the minute I got it back,