THE INTERVIEW: BUD BUCKLEY

Hello, All. If you're a Newcomer to my site, first of all: Welcome! "The Interview" is a series that begins on select Sundays and stays posted through Thursday at 12:01 a.m. It's truly nice of you to stop by, and I hope you enjoy our exciting Guest!

--Michael Manning

Bud Buckley grew up in the Philadelphia/South Jersey area under the tutelage of nuns who seemed to regale in corporal punishment and negative feedback. Amazingly, Bud's strength of character enabled him to rise above this abusive approach to education and he surrounded himself with a love of music. After graduating from college, Bud moved to the Mid Hudson Valley near Woodstock, New York. He began what would become a labor of love--teaching elementary school children with positive reinforcement and supportiveness. As Bud recalls, "An inescapable sensation of self confidence" seized him by both shoulders and led him to purchase a second-hand guitar where he taught himself how to play. As is often the case, adult responsibilities found Bud providing for his family with little time to sit down and spend with the guitar. Then in the late 1990's, Bud found himself teaching a class of fourth grade gifted children who encouraged him to continue working on music. He was lucky enough to teach them again in fifth grade. They pushed him to take his music more seriously. Around this time, Bud struck up a friendship with Classical Guitarist, Helen Avakian and the two began to work in earnest on finger style, guitar theory and composition. Through Helen's encouragement, Bud made his first public appearance and eventually began to meet other singers/composers/musicians including Davis Turner and Leslie Ritter. He became a regular performer in the Mid Hudson Valley of New York, Bud and his wife Cathy discovered areas of Florida where Bud began playing gigs before settling in the lovely area of Venice on Florida's southwestern coast near Tampa. Today with his debut CD, "Feel My Love", Bud's hectic schedule includes recording, teaching and composing his original music with acoustic guitar and performing in scores of area coffee houses, restaurants and outdoor venues. Bud became the fourth Blogger I have been privileged to meet in addition to Deni Bonet, Katherine Magendie and Tricia of "Wood Not Wood". In March, the best part of my 10-city/18 day business trip to light a spark to my broadcasting career was my visit to Bud and Cathy Buckley's home and just being able to take in Venice's beaches and venues where Bud regularly performs. Bud also was among the first handful of Bloggers I started to communicate with 11 months ago when I added a BLOG to my own Website.

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Bud, who were your earliest musical influences when you were growing up in Philly and South Jersey?

I watched Bandstand before it was American Bandstand. It was a local Philly show. Bill Haley and the Comets' Rock Around the Clock was just the coolest. When Elvis appeared later, I was pretty blown away. Then there was a barrage of local guys and NY guys. The Four Seasons, Frankie Avalon, Deon and the Belmonts, Fabian. Many of them moved over to the Jersey side like the rest of us, escaping South Philly. By High School I was pretty sick of formula rock until the Beatles came along. I was a closet Beatles fan because I was trying so hard to be collegiate and into jazz. When I got to college I was amazed that they were all into the British Rock invasion and early folk. Dylan caught my ear early. I loved all the Brit bands and Motown. But my only orientation to country was the Grateful Dead's two country rock albums and the Eagles.Later it was hard for me to keep up on a limited music budget. There are some big gaps in my music knowledge that are related to my income level and/or time to listen.

So many of us who love learning to play a musical instrument are discouraged or distracted by negative circumstances. I know you had your fair share of obstacles to keep a positive attitude. Please share what you encountered as a student and how that led to your unique approach as a schoolteacher?

I was a dreamer and had a very hard time memorizing things due to a head injury when I was 6 or 7. Nobody understood that at the time. They knew I was smart enough figured my poor spelling and lack of memorizing was just laziness or maybe I was stupid and the parts of me that seemed smart were just a fluke. Catholic school nuns weren't trained that well and not well versed in learning disabilities. Sister Mary Piano Teacher told me I was stupid. That was at age 8. I didn't attempt another instrument until I was 17 when a friend loaned me a guitar and some chord diagrams. It was a plywood guitar with the neck action of a stand up base and the first chord I encountered was an F. Never start trying to learn with an F chord! It's like trying to learn how to drive with a dump truck. That ended my notion of playing a guitar until I was 22, married and teaching, I kid you not, in a Catholic school. I taught myself out of a Beatles book. This whole experience, to finally answer your question, taught me to teach the way I would want to be taught. I wasn't always successful with that approach in the classroom because some kids were so blazing smart, they clearly didn't need me. I escaped to Public school teaching when I got my Masters degree and started making a real living. When Istarted to teach guitar, I was determined to find out what each student liked and what approach seemed to fit. I like to teach by teaching a song the student likes. I transpose it to an easy key like G (No F yet). I loved the Beatles and they seduced me into teaching myself. So I teach whatever turns each student on but find a way to make it easier. I can't tell you how many B flat and E flat songs I avoided while teaching myself. But at age 22 I was able to learn an F. Now I teach students FMaj7 first and ease it into an F. Wish I had known about that at age 17. I'd have been Jimmy Friggin' Page!

Before we get into music, I know from visiting your studio that you were a very dedicated and caring teacher with framed photos of the many classes you taught over your career in New York. Teachers today have a rough environment with crowded classrooms and micromanagement that discourages a creative approach towards making learning fun. How did you overcome this in your own classrooms?

I loved teaching. I got my Masters degree and escaped to public school where I could eventually make a living and stop eating Kraft Dinners. I was always good at finding alternate ways to accomplish things that had to get done. I had to because I was always compensating for my own learning disability. I couldn't spell even as an adult, for instance, so I told kids and their parents that out front. And I showed them how I coped with it. I learned the rules to all the words that had rules and learned to use a dictionary and a proof reader. The computer was invented too late in my life. If I had one as a kid, I'd have gone to Harvard. I always started lessons with an admission about the parts I thought were hard for me. Asked what parts they thought were hard for them. Worked on ways to accommodate them as well as I could. But as I was ending my career, the state testing demands were getting outrageous. Left too little time to teach a lot of stuff. I'm glad I got out when I did. I'm not so sure I'd think it was such a terrific job now. The thing everyone ought to learn about teaching is that some people love you and some don't. Just like in the music business.

How did you begin to learn Guitar and Voice?

I covered the beginning of guitar. I taught myself years of bad habits and then started to to find various teachers. Living near Woodstock, NY, there were hundreds of amazing guitarists and a few of them could teach. I would hire one from time to time. They always wound up going on the road or having to leave town for various unstated reasons. I think a guy named Bobby Farris was the first one. He was a Berklee School of Music grad who ran a little music store not far from Big Pink where Dylan and The Band did some recording. He disappeared one day. He taught me some cool jazz chords I still use today. I had a student teacher named Don Abrams who was actually an exile who returned from Canada after the Vietnam war. While there he played drums with Jessie Winchester. Don gave me my sense of rhythm. He lived in the basement of a funeral home. We would jam on Friday afternoons. If there was a wake going on, he wouldn't stop. "I pay my rent," he said. Don graduated from college at New Paltz and headed for California. I heard from him once but haven't been able to find him. Then there was a terrific guy named Jeff Belding who could teach whatever he could hear off of a recording. On the spot. Since I was listening to a lot of James Taylor, that's what he taught me and that heavy use of hammers and pulls on suspended chords is still with me. He taught above his father's print shop. The clatter of those old Linotype machines was an odd percussion at times. He eventually moved away for a band or a girl or a better opportunity. He's doing well by all accounts. I still have every note I took from each of those three. Helen Avakian showed up at my school one day to give a concert with the music teacher. I always wanted to perfect fingestyle and there she was playing Bach or something and then switching to pop music. All in beautiful fingerstyle. I chatted her up afterward and felt right away she could resurrect my playing after a 15 years layoff. And of course, the beautiful kids in my class where pushing me in that direction. I played Rocky Raccoon for them and one or two other songs. So Helen became my teacher. Best thing that ever happened to my guitar playing. She eventually steered me toward Leslie Ritter as a voice coach. Leslie lives with her partner Scott Petitio closer to Woodstock. She had success as a duo called Amy and Leslie. Now she and Scott write and perform together. He is Berklee grad and a bassist for The Fuggs. But he plays wonderful guitar too. He's a successful studio operator, recording engineer and producer. Their studio has seen many member of The Band, Keith Richards, Dave Brubeck Quartet and many many others. That's where I learned voice. With the vibes of those people all around me. Intimidating but Leslie is an astounding singer and teacher. I book a lesson with her ever time I go up there. She radically changed my vocal sound. Now I find that I learn a lot by teaching what I know.

What role did your students have in urging you to pursue a career in music after you "retired" from the classroom. You're still a young guy and I have trouble mentioning the word "retired" to you with a straight face?

There is one class in particular that encouraged me, as I mentioned before. I had them two years in a row. Right now they are finishing their first year in college. Many of them were amazing music kids. By around November of the second year, they knew me so well it was like hanging out with family every day. Cathy and I both got Lyme disease that year. I decided not to tell anybody at school. I didn't want to be treated like an invalid. Lyme has many varied symptoms. My major symptom was memory. I got in the car one morning in the dark and when it came time to hit the cruise control, I couldn't remember where it was. That's how bad I was. The kids instinctively knew I was a bit off. But they baby sat me through the worst of it. I would go to the black board and forgot what I was going to show them. They'd remind me as if nothing was wrong. I get better with heavy doses of antibiotics. They kept asking me to bring the guitar. They were my best audience ever. They were such amazing musicians and so encouraging. Most of them remained even closer friends after they went on to sixth grade. They'd stop by my room before they went to their own. They'd come in at recess. They'd find more and more ingenious excuses to come see me. I'd go to see their performances well into middle and high school. When Helen came along it was the last bit of inspiration I needed to get serious again. When I retired I had already been playing out, doing every open mic I could find. I had been vacationing at Amelia Island for some time where I often got a short set at a local pub thanks to my pal Davis Turner. The kids who stayed in touch the most kept me young, really. They never treated me like the old guy. I wrote the first CD with them in mind through a lot of it. Some of the songs are directly related to them. Others have a line here or there even though it's about other situations. Having one of them, Kathy Feeney, as a collaborator and muse was important in keeping me going. Driving myself. We still write together so I guess that connection will continue. They flocked to my concerts when I played up there last year. Gave me important feedback and the new CD, although is less about them, will take a direction that is far more acoustic because that's what they told me they like best. I think they're right too. Kathy Feeney will have co written at least two songs on the next CD. So you have to feel old to actually be old I think. And they always had this ability to bring the kid out of me.

Meeting Helen Avakian, a Classically-trained Guitarist must have been quite a day. How did the two of you reconcile your contemporary musical style of not only covering selected artists, but also performing your original music with Helen's strict background in Classical?

Helen makes more performance money playing pop tunes and her own compositions are folk rock. Her classical training influences her own music in that it is often tinged with scales you don't ordinarily hear in pop. Sometimes you get some flamenco too. She plays classical gigs with her composer husband, Terry Champlin. They have recorded a fine classical CD together. She does weddings that call for classical and she is the resident guitarist at Bard College Flamenco classes. With her deep background, decoding pop tunes is child's play for Helen. She teaches dozens and dozens of students who want to learn popular music so she just shows them how. Helen and Terry encouraged me to learn to read music when I was very resistant to the idea. Now I'm actually teaching beginning classical guitar. Every new thing I've tackled seems to mushroom into other creative avenues for me. Helen taught me that music is music whatever the style.

When you first told me of how Helen led you to your first live performance in front of 200 people I had goose bumps. Can you share with my readers how this came about?

How much do I love this lady? She's so brilliant! First she had to put up with me, the consummate teacher, telling her how I wanted to be taught. She was so patient with me. At that point I was telling her, "I'm not reading music. Just show me where to put my fingers." She could have kicked me out but she hung in. So I had been taking a lesson a week for about three or four months when she asked me if I wanted to,"Come to a guitar party?" That sounded like fun so I agreed. She made me put it in my date book. Then she told me everybody was going to perform something so what would I like to perform? My heart skipped and then I guess while I was trying to give myself mental cardiac resuscitation, I must have said "the James Taylor thing I'm working on." That's what I get for being poor at multitasking. Survival and weaseling out at the same time just wasn't working. I was committed. After a few weeks of very intense practice on JT's rendition of "Handyman," it was revealed to me that this guitar party was in fact a recital of all her students!

Well, that was thoughtful?

Their families would be there watching. There wasn't time to panic. I had about a week left. She used a huge lounge at the community college who booked most of her students. About 60 or 70 students from age 9 to 90 crammed into an outer lobby to tune their guitars. All at the same time. Very few of us thought enough to go outside to tune up. It was November in New York, after all. I sat through about forty minutes of badly tuned guitars doing everything from "This Old Man Comes Rolling Home" to Dave Matthew's "Satellite." In fact I think I followed the 15 year old who blew everyone away with that. The actual performance is a blur accept for the fear factor. I can only remember being terrified. And being relieved when it was over. But Helen had succeeded in getting me in front of a large crowd to do something I wasn't very confident about. Her powers of seduction continued to work on me until Davis Turner put me up in a bar one night on Amelia Island, Florida. I think I may have done another James Taylor that night. And it felt good and Davis said, "Bud, you just broke your musical cherry." So going with THAT analogy, I guess you could say Helen teased me with all those quickies but Davis took me right to the whore house. I was had. I came back and told Helen. She introduced me to Leslie.

I am also fortunate to count your wife, Cathy as a friend of mine also. How has Cathy inspired your composing and performing career?

Cathy supported me from the very first minute I told her I'd met Helen. She told me to take lessons. When I told Cathy that Helen's guitar was unbelievable to play, she told me to buy a Taylor. That was a couple of thousand. She pushed me into the open mics. She listened to hours and hours of redundant practice. She always said, "I love to hear you play," no matter how shitty it actually was. When Helen suggested I go to Leslie, Cathy marched me right over to set it up. Every new piece of equipment and every additional Taylor I bought was initiated by Cathy's suggestion. Cathy has been the primary enabler of this addiction all along. And as amazing as that is, it's only one reason of many, many more that I'm so in love with her.

That is so awesome! For those of us who have never lived in either New York State or Florida, how do the gigs differ in both environments from playing in the Mid Hudson Valley to Venice? That's quite a long stretch?

Well, everything in the Mid Hudson Valley is measured by Woodstock standards. The best paying gigs there are very hard to get. It isn't enough to be very good. You have to be well connected. There are other less showy gigs that pay less and draw less attention. There's a fairly vibrant open mic scene...

Yeah...

I worked my way up through the open mic scene to the coffee house level. I can go back there and get a mid level gig if I get some people to pull some strings for me. Here in Southwest Florida, I can play almost every night in tourist season which peaks between New Year and Easter. I have two good paying steady gigs in season with a bunch of coffee house things and parties filling up the rest of my week. I also have a growing teaching cliental here. I was just starting to teach guitar before I left New York. Most of the gigs here are of the tourist bar/restaurant variety and therefore you are mostly background except for your diehard fans who sit close and try to get you to do stuff the management will tell you to turn down. I get the higher paying gigs here from time to time but that scene is still owned by an old clique. I'm gradually edging into it. In New York, I wasn't going to be playing in Woodstock any time soon. There's way more opportunity here and I'm quite successful and happy. I'll continue to grow and play more and bigger places. I have no ambition to tour. This is the perfect setting for me. I do a few gigs a month in the summer and record. That's my cycle. I'd love to sell some songs for wider exposure to my writing but haven't actually taken any steps in that direction yet. I know some of my stuff is good enough but as I said, "good enough" is only part of the story.

The teacher in you may be officially retired from school, but I noticed in your CD that your songs are sometimes inspired by experiences that your musical students today bring to you. Tell us how you work these experiences into composing that best suits you?

Well, understand that I wrote the bulk of that material when I was still teaching or in the first year out. "Windswept Girl" is an expression of a young lady's experiences with the hard culture shift from elementary to middle school. "More Than I Want To Know" talks about the frustration of my role as constant 'go to guy' for so many kids who may or may not listen to my suggestions but were never short on stories that were sometimes hard to listen to. But I invited them to do that and would miss it if they didn't. "One Before The Last" started out with my surprise that the second from last class I was going to teach turned out to be such fun. They came with low expectations but it was a good year. A few in that group are still close to me. One in particular is a fantastic writer and I'm trying to mentor her. "Make It Easy" is really my love song to every kid I ever taught. They're all in there by type, really. "Sister Mary Confusing" is about my own hellish days in Catholic school. But it's still inspired by my kids because I used to talk about this nun who is a composit character of all the bad ones I had. They, unfortunately outnumbered the good ones. I should probably do one about the nuns I loved but I might be accused of loving them too much. Who needs that? They sure don't, given the recent revelations of priestly activity. "First Time Home" is really about my impressions the first time I went back to New York a year after I left. My daughter was getting married and I ran into a lot of family and friends I hadn't seen in a long time. It was sweet. I sent the first draft to Kathy Feeney and she said, "Don't change a word of that." So I didn't. And then she gave me "Stargazer" which I just rearranged to fit some music. She loves the night sky, that one. "To Be Alone," is actually about older friends who were struggling with being single chicks. "The Part That Doesn't," started during a very rare argument with my Cathy. It evolved and took on other experiences I was having or some of my young confidants where having. I wrote it on a challenge from Helen and it's the first song I ever finished. Although I wrote the lyric to Windswept first. Helen said she'd come do a concert at my school if I wrote and performed one. I was pretty confident by that time. "Jacob's Hurricane" was written during Hurricane Charley which ripped apart several towns fifteen miles south of here. It's the only song I ever wrote spontaneously with music and words together. Fear factor at work, I guess. Of the newer unrecorded stuff, some of it is a combination of kid experiences and my own new life. Some of it is strictly from my non teacher experience. At least two, as I said are lyrics Kathy Feeney gave me. I've posted work tapes of most of them on my site just to get some initial reaction. I'm trying to decide if I should get those links up again or wait until I have second drafts. My blog is really all about where my songs come from and I lay my process out naked for all to see. It's often raw but I hope to encourage others to get in touch with their own creative urges this way.

How has your experience as a classroom teacher worked to your advantage in the music studio? Are there counseling issues that come up where you help the kids remove obstacles to learning that differ from the ones you and I may have had when we were their age?

My years in the classroom gave me what I feel is my biggest selling point as a guitar teacher. It's my mission to discover first how to teach each individual. I find a pace, a style of music and an energy level of each student. I tailor my teaching to that. I'm always open to adjusting. That wasn't always possible in the classroom. I'm always looking for better ways to get across what each student needs. I was always like that. My masters degree is Educational Communications. So I was always tuned to that process even when the state or the school district made it impossible to implement everything I knew was best. Now, I'm the boss. It's Bud Unchained!

Before I ask about your live performances, Bud, I'm curious about what artists you enjoy listening to today?

I usually dodge this question by saying I'm influenced by everybody I've ever listened to. The list is too long to even start. Obviously I'm a product of the sixties and seventies. I missed the eighties. Too busy. Of the newer people, again, I'll leave a lot of people out but off the top of my head, I love John Mayer's writing and singing. I can't approach all the guitar stuff he does but I handle some of it. I like Jakob Dylan. Damien Rice is excellent. Matthew Sweet is very cool. Dave Matthews also. But I can't approach singing AND playing those beats at the same time. I tend to listen to people I might like to cover and at the same time draw inspiration from. And that list is way too long.

I've experienced you live in an outdoor performing venue in Venice this past spring and was impressed with how comfortable your audience was with you. What is the experience like for you in the spotlight with each audience? What makes each gig different?

I was very relaxed when you saw me at Althea's. That's my regular dinner gig. By the time you got there, I was through pacifying the older folks who need to be chilled out as they waited for a table. The later evening crowd comes to listen to me while they eat. So I'm really having fun. Every crowd is different and your job is to try to find out what they want. You have to read body language and catch snatches of conversation. Sometimes I'll initiate conversation between songs. At a coffee house gig, people are usually there to listen so I do more story telling, quipping back and forth, teasing the barrista, pitching my CD's. Bars are another animal. And I do mean "animal". You're there to get people to drink and to enhance their mood in some way. When you're playing a beach bar, you're there to give them all the musical cliches they can think of. Often if you impose on the preset song list they come with in their heads, you won't be back. But they pay well.

Can you tell us about what the creative process is like for you and Helen, or other collaborators when you are composing a new song?

It's different with everybody. Helen has such enormous talent and experience, I show her what I have, almost always lyrics and she picks one that moves her and it moves her fast. She records it onto a cassette on the fly. We tinker, I get her to tab it out for me because I can't usually follow her fingering at that speed. She tinkers with the words to make them fit or suggests things if she's not clear on what I was talking about. We don't get together that often, living 1500 miles apart.

That is frustrating, I'm sure.

We're also very busy to get a lot of stuff back and forth to each other. I'm hoping we'll do some more this summer. Kathy Feeney is a serious college student. School comes before everything and she has an active social life. She has also always been on a varsity track and cross country team. Pinning her down is even harder than getting with Helen. She sends me some verse or a list of random ideas. I rework it into a lyric and ask her what she thinks. We may go back and forth a few times like that before I start adding music. I took some lines from Bored Housewife's (Lisa Anderson) blog and turned them into a lyric called "Cruel in Utah." She approved and I set it to music. That one was easy, actually. My student, Jim Salhoff, is a terrific writer. He brings me songs and I tinker with a few chords or make some suggestions and he is way too generous in giving me a songwriting credit. I do very little. It's more like editing and challenging him to come up with something based on what I'm teaching him. He actually gave me a wonderful little D progression that I put into my song "Move Me." I always give him credit for it. I'll work whatever way I have to with whoever I get the opportunity with.

Tell us what you can about the new CD project? What is going to be different about this CD from "Feel My Love?

I can tell you this much at the present time: It'll be mostly acoustic. I'll layer guitars. I'll use live musicians and no loops. I hope to have several different musicians for different songs. I think I'm singing better these days and I'll do some of my own harmonies. If I can get a few other rich voices to do back ups, I will. I know some killer female singers but not sure if they all blend with me. I know Helen does and if she's available, we'll do that. I'd love to have my brother and my son play some bass if it can be arranged. I'd love to have my son-in-law play some drums too. I found a great harmonica guy and if he's still available, that would be cool but I can do some of that on my own. If I can book studio time at Scott and Leslie's anything can happen. That's a time and money issue that is yet unexplored. The working title is "My Tattoo." Mark Zampella will mix and master as well as produce and I'm hopeful Helen will produce some as well.

You seem to be expanding geographically a bit outside of the immediate Venice area and that is exciting. Can you tell us about that?

Well, in the off season when I'm not booked at my steady gigs, I look further north and south but things are slow everywhere. I'll go into Charlotte County and up into Sarasota and Manatee County. Tampa Bay is not out of the question. I'd do Orlando if the opportunity came up. I'd always do guest shots back on Amelia (Island) if asked. Then there's New York when I'm there. But no tour, thank you.

Do you find the musician community tightly knit, competitive or is there a camaraderie in the geographic area you live in?

It's both of those things. The musicians I know, I really love. Most are extremely generous. If one walks into my gig, he or she gets invited up on stage with me. And that is often the case when I show up someplace. Some of us are competing for the same kinds of gigs. Most of us respect each other's turf and do not invade by trying to horn in. There are always stinkers in any group but it's rare that I have to deal with that. The coffee houses like a constant turnaround of different performers and that's good for all of us. I'd love to put together a big concert featuring everybody in the area doing short sets. I did that once at a coffee house birthday celebration. Wonderful day! The landlord forbids that anymore though.

What do you have to say to those people reading this interview who feel that it may be too late for them to learn an instrument, much less perform at this stage of their lives?

It's never too late. I'm living proof. I not only started at retirement age but I didn't believe in myself for most of my life. If it's your goal and you want it, you'll do it.

That's pretty incredible, Bud. If you had to identify the least pleasant aspect of the music business today that you would like to see changed, what would that be?

I'd like to see the big record labels disappear. I think that would help to put an end to formula music. My favorites are indies or those who came to fame as indies and don't have to bend to industry formulas. I feel the exact same way about film. I will NOT watch commercial TV. I understand why that stuff exists and I know it will continue that way. But there will always still be a market for independent artists of all types.

Your son, Jason is a bass guitar player (and my Webmaster). Is your entire family musically inclined?

I think everybody in my family and on Jason's mother's side too, at least dabbled in music. Lessons here and there. My dad played piano by ear. I remember my mom trying to learn piano with a home course. My sister played piano and violin and sang. My older brother was a great dancer. My younger brother was a professional bass player for quite a while. My daughter played piano and flute. So it was always a musical environment. Nobody in my family tree, as far as I know made a living from it for very long, however.

Looking ahead, what can we expect from Bud Buckley. I know you have plans to expand your recording studio and you do keep up with the ever-changing technology of the business too?

I'll keep performing and writing and recording as long as I hold out. When nobody wants to listen to me anymore, I'll play for myself. I'm on the verge of marketing a couple of music aids for musicians and songwriters. I'd love to help young musicians but time is limited. If I were to have a career ending injury or illness, I'd probably get into managing and promoting independent artists. Once a teacher, always a teacher, I guess. I'd be delighted to help somebody's career.

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