From Baghdad to a Music Career
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It was well into an hour of the interview with this month’s Common Chords subject before I found my story. The cameras had been put back in their cases and all I had to record comments was my trusty notepad and a borrowed pen.
Ronald Ott and I had met a few months earlier at a music instruction school fashioned like the one from Jack Black’s movie “School Of Rock”. There he was teaching a 12-year-old guitar slinger the guitar solo to a 70’s rock song.
Going into these interviews, I try not to have a preconceived notion as to how they will go. I do however try to have a basic plan for a storyline.
With Ott it was teaching. My story line would be acquiring knowledge from one level (i.e. Coastal) and the handing down of knowledge from another. (i.e. School of Rock)
The problem happened when he told me he had left his job as a teacher at the School of Rock.
Then I struggled to find a story line and in the end I found a better one.
Ott had used the guitar to find comfort during his time stationed with the Army in Iraq. He had spent a year as a specialist transporting supplies to troops in and around Baghdad.
This storyline is only reflected in the printed and word version of the column and is not mentioned in the video.
So please go to my Common Chords blog at TheSunNews.com and read more about Ott the other talented musician I’ve featured.
rlh