Keep your bolts and car paint off of my instruments

I am not a religious person in the sense that I do not belong to a particular denomination. I am however a strong believer in the theory that God has a plan for us long before our trip down the birth canal.  Unfortunately,  most folks never end up on their own path because all the signs that direct you are often ignored or overlooked.  I suspect that many people believe in whatever they are told and live their whole life questioning the direction they are headed.

  –My first sign had the word Destroyer written in plain english-

   When I was eleven,  my uncle came home from California during Christmas with what looked like a medieval weapon in a leather case  over his shoulder.  It might as well have been a UFO or Bigfoot because I could not believe my eyes when he unzipped the case.  A 1983 Ibanez Destroyer 2. Sunburst curly maple top, cream binding, abalone inlays, gold hardware, and it wasn’t shaped like any guitar I had seen up til then. I had never seen anything so beautiful before. How did they get all those tiger stripes on the wood?  What was that shiny stuff on the neck and how did that get in the wood?  I had never felt such a powerful amazement with anything . What happened next is clearly the first sign I was given. My uncle went out to the car and came back with this little black box that had the word Marshall written in really cool cursive writing on it. He plugged in the little amp and turned it on standby. He fiddled with some knobs, adjusted the little knobs at the top of the guitar and flipped the standby switch. The hair on the back of my neck stood up when I heard the hum of the tubes and everything got kind of blurry for a second.  The next thing I remember was my head exploding .  The sound that I was hearing was better than any of the presents under the Christmas tree.  My uncle was playing the intro riff to Ted Nugent’s  Stranglehold. I had no idea what it was at the time  but it didn’t matter. From that day forth the guitar was a constant in my life. 

I guess I needed a flashy sign

The next few signs were shown to me by a state official with a mustache and crew cut.