An abused body and mind can only rock the casbah so many times. The Kinks had it right when they sang “Motorway food is the worst in the world.” That stuff will kill you if you’re not careful. The other contributing, uh, habits, musicians are exposed to combined with little sleep and no real exercise beyond lifting a guitar or speaker cabinet can push a BigMac body to the limit. Drowning on fast food vomit during a chemical sleep is such an inglorious way to go.
To be truthful, my own health habits have run in cycles over the years. I take turns binging on slothfulness /careless eating and then swing to workout mania /vegetarian mindfulness. I’ve been doing much more of the latter in recent years. I gig two to four times a week in my local area and I’m exposed to a lot of rich food that is excellent quality but diet crushing. There is also the offered alcohol payoff which I have no problem with since I don’t drink and never have. I know that’s unusual but I can more than make up for the damage free booze can cause with accepting amazing and amazingly rich dinners at the fine restaurants I perform in. It’s very hard to say no to a culinary genius after a late gig. The owner/chef in my regular weekend gigs is Ed Glennen, of Back Eddy Bistro, who was the personal chef to Neil Young, Jimmy Buffett, Rupert Murdock, Roy Schemer, and other luminaries. This dude cooks his ass off! And his wife, Ally, makes astounding desserts. I am challenged every minute of every weekend to keep the damage to my waistline minimal. That demands a veggie diet the rest of the week and so juicing, followed by just veggies has replaced the heavy foods with better results. I have short arms. I need to be able to reach the guitar strings without a protruding gut pushing them even further away from me. You know what I mean?
Sauteed Caramelized Onions, Mushrooms and Roasted Peppers, Spinach, Goat Cheese and Parmesan in Tomato Cream Sauce.” I don’t think so. I want to die Pretty. I honestly believe it’s more about feeling good about ourselves while this body is still breathing, singing and picking strings.
