Closer and closer to now

I met a guitarist

A lifetime musician

At a Thai restaurant I found on Google maps

He arrived at my table

Before I knew anything about him

And asked if it was ok to sit down

He was here on tour

I didn’t recognise his band

But I was curious

I asked if he’d experienced transcendental states on stage

He said yes

Performing is like an energy exchange

It’s about slicing time down closer and closer to now

And when he was really connected

He could feel the crowd

Like a heat, he said, but not quite

Having that much attention on you forces you to focus

You’re not thinking about the bills to pay or whether you’re wearing the right shoes

You lose yourself in the music

And ten minutes could be two hours

Sounds that come out of you that you don’t even recognise

And the more you play with your bandmates

The easier it is to lock in — to connect

He’d grown up in 70s Bay Area

So he’d performed under the influence of every substance under the sun

And he said with time

He discovered it was all the same state

And gave up on the drugs when he could have the real stuff

He’d committed his life to this art

And he was happy

I asked if he’d tell his younger self to do anything differently

And he said, apart from perhaps not ending a relationship here or there, he said no

He just followed the energy of his life

He did what he wanted, what felt right to him

But it’s not like there were no costs

He’s been on the road so much, he can’t stay in a place for longer than six weeks before getting itchy feet

He lives between New York and LA

With girlfriends dotted across the world

But he lives modestly

So he can support family

And he’s happy

All of those years spent couch surfing

And the pig headedness not to give up

Was what separated him from all the rest