Guitarist extraordinaire.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/eric-johnson/id1316200737?i=1000625534005

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/c522d52c-4ae6-494b-bf4c-0ee0b3811e8d/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-eric-johnson

https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/eric-johnson-306670800

We’re doing this again?

I watched so you don’t have to. Well, an hour anyway. I couldn’t take any more, and I doubt the rest of the viewers could either.

And here’s what I’ve got to tell you…

Chris Christie is toast. He’s the Mike Bloomberg of the Republican party. A theoretical force until you see him on stage, where he seems to have lost a step. It’s the same old crap plus a bunch of anti-Trump stuff that no one is listening to, so what’s the point.

I don’t know what is going on in Florida, but Ron DeSantis is not ready for the national stage, and probably won’t ever be ready. Media-coached, he had one of the most fake smiles in history. You could see his brain working, to try and spread his lips, to show some teeth. It was out of “Mad” magazine or something. This guy is so cold and unlikable it’s laughable. But he really lost all credibility when the candidates were asked to raise their hand if they felt climate change was real and he broke in unsolicited, with some cockamamie verbiage trying to forestall, hopefully eliminate completely, a yes or no decision. He was belligerent, the kind of guy who talks over you at a party. Who cares about climate change, this man’s behavior was offensive, and evading the question by battling it, saying it’s unnecessary to begin with, that was a bad look.

The surprise was Nikki Haley, who’s basing her campaign on truth, the consequences of Trump’s policies, the rise in the debt… Again and again Haley spoke truth, even saying there was no way in hell a federal abortion ban could be passed, because it would require 60 Republican senators, and that’s impossible, at least in the near term. However, as good as Haley looked, as much as her smile appeared genuine, there was something stilted in her presentation, she did not seem relaxed. She said a lot of the right things, but you just couldn’t warm up to her.

Who have I missed?

Oh, Pence. What a wanker. Running on Trump’s record of running up debt, saying what a great job they did, that the only problem in America was the wrong administration.

Let’s not even talk about Asa Hutchinson. Whatever accomplishments he has are in the rearview mirror, he’s running on yesteryear. And Tim Scott… Trying to be the voice of reason but losing credibility in the process. He was warmer than Haley, DeSantis and even Christie. But the longer he talked the more he appeared a tool of the party, anything but innovative. As for the governor of North Dakota? I’d have to look up his name. He wasn’t ready for prime time, had trouble getting it out, can this guy, he doesn’t deserve to be in the spotlight.

Which leaves us with Vivek Ramaswamy. We’ve been reading about his ascending poll numbers, tonight we got an upfront look. And now I understand it. In many ways, unfortunately not all, Vivek is running away from the rest of the candidates, he’s a disrupter, just like in the tech world he comes from. Everybody else is parroting the past, your eyes could roll into the back of your head. But Vivek?

He said he was 38. Vivek automatically has the youth vote, because no one else is running in that lane, certainly no Republican. Vivek was fresh and energized in a way that neither Trump nor Biden is. Vivek was nimble. And if you’re under the age of 50…you’re sick and tired of old men telling you how to live your life without knowing the life you’re living. Young people, and under 50 is in many ways young, well, at least under 40, live their lives online, they’re digital natives. It’s like growing up skiing as opposed to trying to learn when you’re older. It’s much easier when you’re younger. You just know. But nobody in D.C. seems to know… About your smartphone, TikTok, everything you take for granted.

Vivek knows.

Even better, he rose above the rest by wanting to stop litigating the past and wanting to plan and govern for the future. This has been the problem for Republicans in D.C., they’re the party of no, oftentimes they reject the Democrats’ proffered legislation and offer nothing in return. As for the Freedom Caucus lunatics… It’s a bad look, but one thing’s for sure, their constituents are never going to vote for Biden, they’re never going to vote for any Democrat.

So…

It was the same old thing, over and over, except for Haley and Ramaswamy. Who ended up looking like a breath of fresh air as a result. Is the Republican party ready for a South Asian president? Definitely. It fits with their ethos, then they can say they’re not racist, that nothing is holding back minorities in America. Because Ramaswamy is one of them. Don’t watch him and think he’s a Democrat, he’s anything but. When he said Donald Trump was the best president of the 21st century, it was like Hillary telling us her favorite book was the Bible. There’s no way Ramaswamy believes this. Let’s even start at a basic level. Everybody in tech knows Trump’s anti-immigrant laws left too many geniuses outside of the country, where they ultimately built companies in their homelands, like India. These are not the people taking blue collar jobs. Rather these are the people who are pushing the envelope forward, like Ramaswamy himself. When Vivek pandered, I winced. This was undercutting his mission, his direction, to be the other, to be the choice, because in reality, other than the unelectable Haley, the rest of the men were exactly the same.

As for what they were saying, manna from heaven to dyed-in-the-wool Republicans, downright scary, if not laughable, to those who have not consumed the kool-aid. Vivek could run the ball right up the middle. With the youth vote, with the digital vote, but then he starts spewing some of the same damn crap, the tired talking points, and if you weren’t already on the team, there was no way you’d join.

Bottom line is it was great that Trump was absent. He would have dominated. He doesn’t believe in rules. Screw the one minute limit. He would have talked over people and…

Only Nikki spoke to Trump’s policies, which was brave, because not everybody in the party agrees with them. You’re never going to beat Trump being me-too, you’ve got to propose an alternative.

And the Fox interrogators… I’ve got to give them credit, they asked some tough questions, which DeSantis always avoided. But even young Republicans are worried about climate change. If you speak some semblance of truth, you could win.

Which is how Trump got elected in the first place. He ignored norms. Stopped doing what consultants say to. He knew his constituency better than they did. They’d been in the game too long to understand what was going on.

And this is a problem on the left too. Pussies. Schumer and Schiff… What does it take to get you pissed-off, to be a leader. You’re like the kids who were elected to student government in high school. Irrelevant in the backwater while the football captain and the independent freak were leading and influencing. If you want us to follow, demonstrate you can lead, that you are not afraid, fight back…

So, let’s hope the nobodies, the people who can’t win, are weeded out. I’d like to see Vivek go one on one with Donald. Trump would be Foreman, flat-footed, depending on the strength of his punches. Ramaswamy would be Ali, nimble of foot and mind, employing the rope-a-dope.

It ain’t over yet people.

But damn did it start too soon. Didn’t we just do this?

WHAT WE’VE LEARNED

1. An independent is a Republican who doesn’t want to be seen as such. Very few people in America are truly independent. They almost always vote one way or the other. But they don’t want to be perceived as being beholden to a camp. Don’t buy it. You’re either a Republican or a Democrat, pick your side. As for the third party acolytes… Yeah, and unicorns are going to fly out of my butt.

2. In an incomprehensible music scene, mainstream media looks for a story, to define the landscape, to make sense of it all. Even though it makes no sense at all. “Rich Men North of Richmond” is a one shot, equivalent to shooting someone, a lot of news, and then nothing.

3. Hits are irrelevant, it’s about careers. Call me next year, or the year after, when Oliver Anthony can sell out arenas.

4. The concept of the song is more important than the song itself. In other words, have you listened to this? Do you want to listen to it more than once? What we’ve got here is train-wreck value. Everybody has to check it out. And then they move on.

5. People do hunger for authenticity, something seen as honest and credible, in a world where they’re constantly fed cartoons. Come on, have you listened to the Spotify Top 50? What you’ve got is people looking to get rich, who’ve smoothed off the rough edges, or are high concept outlaws… Today’s hit music is akin to the WWE. About as real as wrestling.

6. Never underestimate the power of a guitar and a voice.

7. If this was about the music, Billy Bragg’s answer song would be getting traction, but it’s not. “Richmond” is a phenomenon driven by right wing press. Believing it is owning the libs when that is patently untrue. This is what happens when a ranking system is flawed. Sales far outweigh streams on the chart, even though streams are by far the dominant mode of consumption. So truth is not. Buying “Richmond” is akin to texting two dollars to Donald Trump, an emotional effort demonstrating your belief. And if money was everything, Ron DeSantis would be contending with Trump in the polls, and he’s not.

8. There will be no Democratic response because the Democrats don’t care. They’ve seen the movie, they know the right wing is insane, they’ll vote, but they don’t want to take the everyday bait. As far as a phenomenon like this on the left… The left is not a cult, not one homogeneous group that bands together to make a point. And that’s a good thing. Because the left far outweighs the right in numbers. The right only triumphs because the game is rigged because of the Constitution, which they love so much and see no need to amend. Biden beat Trump by 7 million votes. But that’s not how the president is picked, it’s via the electoral college. Meaning only a handful of states count. The “Richmond’ phenomenon is akin to those few states, the rest of us aren’t paying attention and don’t care.

9. They want you to be scared. That there’s a creeping force that’s going to come along and dominate. But it’s a paper tiger. Don’t buy the hype.

10. There are no taboos, you can criticize anybody and get away with it today. Their weight, their religion… Leaving a very small coterie that is immune. You think you’re part of the club until you find out you’re not. If you’re white, Christian and self-sufficient, with enough money to get by, you’re included. But if you’re poor… You may think they want you, but they don’t. You can vote Republican emotionally, but oftentimes it’s against your best interests. And are you skinny and not taking any government aid? Look a little deeper, red states outweigh the blue in their amount of government aid. But don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story.

11. Just because Oliver Anthony made it, don’t think you will. And don’t think there are going to be a lot of Oliver Anthonys in the pipeline. One and done. An anomaly. A freak show. Kind of like Radiohead’s name your own price with “In Rainbows.” Do you remember who else tried this? Probably not, and none were successful.

12. Country music may lean right, but country music has made inroads because it contains all that pop/hip-hop do not, simple melodies and choruses that you can grasp and sing along to. As for the lyrics, so much is so bland that it doesn’t matter anyway. Which is why everybody glommed on to this “Richmond” song to begin with. Trump set the paradigm and almost nobody seems to have noticed. People want someone with an edge, who doesn’t triangulate, who speaks from the heart, in all walks of life. These are our heroes, whether they’re on the right or the left. If you’re honest and credible, and you put it out there and have talent, you have a much better chance than you do if you’re imitating the hit du jour. Great players are a dime a dozen, just go on TikTok, where there are kids in the single digits who shred. And vocals? Come on, even those on TV contest shows can’t make a dent. It’s all about a je ne sais quoi, something special, that makes you different, that evidences who you really are, that triumphs. This is what is killing the movie business. Sure, some people want high concept superhero movies, but most of us don’t, and until the movie business starts making films for the rest of us… But it won’t, because the costs are too high and the odds are too low. It’s a business. Yet when something is art you have a chance to triumph. If you want gritty reality go to streaming TV.

13. It’s no longer about the hit, but the mass. This is why Netflix kills its competitors. All we hear about is balancing the books, that too much product is being made. But that’s exactly why we subscribe, because of the plethora of material. With a constant flow of the new. It’s like Amazon, it triumphs because it’s got everything, and is dependable. If you haven’t had problems with the MAX app, you’re not using it.

14. Complaints. Us vs. them. How inspiring is that? We’ve been hearing this from the right ad infinitum. I mean if “Rich Men North of Richmond” makes you feel good, then you think someone is stealing your retro lifestyle that wasn’t so good to begin with. The future only moves in one direction, forward. Progress is inevitable.

15. “Richmond” is specific about the losers and the losses, but the enemy, those men north of Richmond, who exactly are they? This song is laughable because we don’t know who the enemy is. Call out the enemy. And the enemy is more right than left anyway. And how about the right to work states, sans unions. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. But don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story.

16. Low pay? Minimum wage is higher in the states north of Richmond. Miners? There aren’t that many left and you’d be stunned how much energy is now produced by alternative methods.

17. Control? That’s a pejorative on the right, FREEDOM! Last I checked it was the right that was controlling women’s bodies, what we could read…and when it comes to taxes, the end result of their lowering, by Republicans, is the rich have gotten richer and the poor have gotten poorer and…

18. In other words, the right wing cheerleaders who blew up this song are pulling the wool over the eyes of their somnambulant constituents, who are too dumb and too uninformed to know the facts, what the hell is going on.

19. This is not Lil Nas X. Who was built organically on social media and then blown up via manipulation, i.e. the kerfuffle that country radio wouldn’t play “Old Town Road,” which is infectious, unlike “Rich Men North of Richmond.”

20. “Don’t follow leaders, watch the parking meters.” If you want wisdom don’t look to some ignorant reactionary punk south of Richmond, but someone who knows of what they speak, who is intelligent and can express themselves, who knows you’ve got to think for yourself. If Oliver Anthony is a leader…count me out. Count almost everybody out. Because this dude is too ignorant to follow.

21. Here today, gone tomorrow. That’s what happened with Jason Aldean’s song and that’s what will happen with this song. Next!

P.S. It’s all a front anyway, a posture with no backbone, did you see Kid Rock drinking Bud Light?

I was puking blood.

The good thing about being locked up for three years is I never got sick. But three weeks ago I went out four nights in a row. Two of those were outdoors. One was indoors, but there was a high ceiling and I was relatively alone. Another was at a restaurant sparsely attended. But after that outdoor gig at the Hollywood Bowl I went backstage and got in a long conversation with Jacob Collier and his team. This is what I do best, relate to artists. If I was a businessman I’d be rich, but I am not. I don’t know how to get along like a bro, I don’t know how to charge. But if you want to talk concepts, feelings, I’m your man. And a real artist specializes in those. And it was Jacob and his right hand guy from MIT and his manager Adam and a management team member from England and we were having a very fruitful conversation about AI and the possibilities. Jacob was talking about triggering, using AI to create music. It’s all blue sky, there are legal issues, but instead of being defensive, saying no first, artists look forward, see every innovation as an interesting challenge, an opportunity.

So Jacob had just flown in from Asia. As had two of the aforementioned team members. And I think I got something from them. Because traveling musicians, they’re sick all the time. I don’t want to blame them, stuff happens, but everybody else I was with over those four nights is totally fine, and for three weeks now I’ve had a cough.

Hmm… No sore throat. No jag where I couldn’t stop coughing. And then…

I’d just left my car for a hike in the mountains, this was Friday night, and my chest felt rough, scratchy. And I didn’t have a beverage with me, but there was a water fountain about ten minutes ahead and I figured I’d stop there and partake and ultimately clear my throat.

But the cough wouldn’t go away. So I decided to expectorate, you know, to clear the passageway.

And when I spit on the ground… I saw blood.

Not that thin stuff, you know, saliva with a bit of a tint. This was splotchy, and a deep crimson color.

But that was just once. My throat was clear now, right?

Well, I kept on coughing and expectorating and the same thing happened. Splotches of blood. Big ones.

This was after I’d turned around. After I’d Googled and found out coughing up blood was evidence of an infection, maybe pneumonia. I needed some expertise.

So I called my doctor and when I got to the part where you page him, I realized I’d better go home first, in case I needed to write something down, and that was only twenty minutes away, so there I went. And when I got home I paged my doctor, who got back to me right away. Yes, that’s the attention I get. And I’m paying a hundred cents on the dollar. My internist went off insurance years ago, and then he stopped taking Medicare, but this was the guy who found my leukemia and…it’s worth every penny.

So he called me back instantly, I described my symptoms, and he asked me what I thought.

I said I thought I should probably take an antibiotic.

He wasn’t so sure. He thought I needed to be seen. He thought I shouldn’t be cavalier about this.

Now the weird thing about turning seventy, and that is the age I am, even though I feel about fifty years younger, is you realize you’re gonna die. You can fight aging, but you’re never going to win the battle. You can lie to yourself, get plastic surgery, hang with young ‘uns, lie about your age, but inside you can see the end coming. And it’s very weird, because so much of what used to have meaning no longer does. And that’s exacerbated by the Internet era, where everything is Balkanized, where there really is no chart and you’re not sure where you really stand. You’re alone. Even worse, your contemporaries, so many of them have already retired, they’ve retreated, they’re living a life of leisure. And they’re focused on their grandkids. I’ve got no kids, never mind grandkids, and there’s still so much I want to accomplish, but time is running out. Christine McVie didn’t even make eighty. And Robbie Robertson just barely did. And then there was that guy who went to the hospital, they found out he had pneumonia, and right thereafter he died.

I didn’t want that to be me. But it could be.

So my internist gave me two options. I could go to Sollis or the ER.

Sollis? I’d never heard of it. What it is is concierge ER. They see you immediately, they triage the situation, get you additional treatment if you need it, get a bed for you in the hospital. And my doctor thought I might need that, a bed in the hospital, or oxygen, he was scared by my cough.

But you’ve got to join Sollis. But my doctor said the first visit could count. He wasn’t sure of the cost, he thought it was five grand. Turns out it’s six grand. And that was just too rich for my blood. And this was the first time I wished I had more money. Made more money. Because when it comes to your health, you don’t want any limits, you want the best and you want it now. As the Eagles sang, the doctor says he’s coming, but you’ve got to pay in cash. It’s good to have that cash.

But if I might need to be admitted to the hospital anyway, why not start off at the hospital? My doctor recommended St. John’s, which is in Santa Monica.

So I shaved and showered. On one hand time was of the essence, on another if I was stinky and…

I was planning to go alone. Because the ER can be interminable. But Felice insisted on coming with me. Which I felt guilty about, but like I just said, she insisted.

And in case you haven’t been to the ER recently, they prioritize. If you come in profusely bleeding, or if you come in an ambulance after being in a car accident, they see you right away. But if time isn’t of the absolute essence, if your condition is not life and death, you may continue to be bumped down, it could take hours to be seen.

But it didn’t seem that busy in the waiting room. And no one looked incredibly sick. Then again, after about an hour someone came in with suitcases, and another with oxygen, so I read my book and did the Saturday “Times” puzzle on my phone. I never do it, I don’t have the patience and I’m not good at it, but I astounded myself by actually filling up about thirty percent. Well, maybe twenty five percent.

And then they called me in.

After three hours.

And now I had to give my spiel. I like to make it detailed but short. You want to give all the information, clearly, with nothing extraneous. And you’ve got to talk about extenuating circumstances, like I’m immune-compromised, because I got a Rituxan infusion for my pemphigus and it wiped out all my B-cells. This is another reason my doctor wanted me to go to the ER.

But I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you that as soon as I was lying on the bed, talking to the doctor, I felt like I wasn’t entitled, that what I had was no big deal. Then again, I’d already put in three hours.

Did you know they’ve got a portable x-ray machine now? They wheel it up to your bed, shoot pictures, and you wait for the results. They said it would be at least an hour, but the analysis came in about thirty minutes later. It said:

“IMPRESSION: No definite acute process. A small amount of left lower lobe pneumonia cannot be completely excluded, exam limited by portable technique.”

So now we needed to do a CT scan.

Now when you’re lying there, it’s like you don’t exist. It’s like a club of doctors and nurses and they all hang in this office in the middle and they’re having a rollicking good time and even if you yell, they usually don’t hear you. And I didn’t want to be pushy, but I’d been holding it in for hours, I needed to pee.

So when one of the maintenance people went by, I told them and they got a nurse and I was disconnected from the wires and I went to the bathroom and…

Now I’ve seen worse at port-a-potties. At airports. But this was a hospital. Go to In-N-Out and they’re cleaning the toilets regularly. Even in the gas stations you fill up at in the desert. This is their calling card. But at the hospital?

Since I was disconnected and up, I figured I’d give #2 a try. But there was no way.

So I walked around the building, looking for another lavatory, and eventually I found one and I’d like to tell you it was clean, it wasn’t, but it was cleaner, so I did my business and on my way back, I poked my head into the bullpen, the office, and they freaked out! I just wanted to know when I was going to get my CT scan. It was 2:30 in the morning already. The two people in the beds next to me were close to death, at least they looked that way. They were now asleep. Both very aged. No one seemed to be worried about them. But me?

And I’m thinking I’m young, but I’m aged too, just not that aged.

So I go back to my bed and within half an hour they came and started rolling me around, on the way to the picture room. And this is when I really started to feel weird, like I wanted to get out of there.

What I didn’t mention is I’ve had the negative experience a number of times. You know, what is a routine test is not. And the doctor looks grave and they start to take action and your head spins and you settle into passivity, being wheeled around the hospital is part of the experience, you almost enjoy it. But in this case, I wanted to jump up and leave, I didn’t want to be considered sick. But I’d invested so much.

So they took the pictures and I started to wait again.

I had the scan just before 3 A.M., and then it was 4, and then it was approaching 5… I was getting itchy. But like I said, I’d invested so much time.

Now I forgot to mention, that those results that came in early… I got them on my phone. It’s really pretty amazing. St. John’s is a Providence hospital, but UCLA and Cedars have these apps too. You get the results as soon as they’re in, oftentimes before the doctor sees you, and this can be scary. But the CT scan was not showing up.

And then, at 4:55 AM, the ER doctor came to consult with me. The CT scan had shown nothing… Well, it did show calcification of the heart, but I already knew that. Rust never sleeps. You’re fighting deterioration 24/7. Go to the doctor, face the music, accept the process, or be ignorant and die.

So…

It could be pneumonia. Or it could be bronchitis. You can cough up blood with bronchitis. But just to be sure I should take an antibiotic.

And after eight hours at St. John’s, we got in the car and left. At 5 A.M. Thankfully before the sun came up. Because if you’re a late night person you know there’s nothing so depressing as the sun coming up, you want to lay your head down before that happens.

And I got to be about a quarter to six and…

I wanted to forget the whole damn thing. Make like it didn’t happen. Because otherwise I’d get angry and frustrated and there was no upside to that.

And I woke up to e-mail from my internist asking for a report, the data had not shown up for him.

I told him I was going to take a Z-pak.

He told me if the cough persisted there were things he could prescribe. Steroids… There were about four.

And then I decided I was not going to leave the house. Screw hiking, I was wiping the decks clean. Because it’s like Covid, not such a big deal if you’re young, but if you’re old, it’s a really big deal. What seems minor could kill you. We always think we’ll bounce back, but that’s not always true.

And now I’ll hear from those people telling me Covid is serious, and coming back. As if I live in a rat hole and know nothing. And this will lead to the antivaxxers, which I completely don’t understand. Did you ever get into a discussion with these people? They start citing facts that are easily disprovable online. If you paid attention you know that the mRNA vaccines were not new, they’d been created over years, it’s just now they had a use, for Covid. But I keep hearing people telling me they were rushed. That it was too new. And then about all the people who died. Well I know plenty of people who died, but they didn’t get vaccinated. Which way do you want to have it? I’ve got to ask you, do you feel lucky, punk?

And believe me, when you’re in the hospital dying you’ll want everything they can throw at you. You won’t be calling your healer, your naturopath, you’ll want some of those western drugs. Oh no, Big Pharma is the enemy! And doctors just want to run up the bill!

Of course Big Pharma is flawed. And there are stories of doctors over-prescribing on a regular basis, doing unnecessary surgery. But do you throw the baby out with the bathwater?

I’m not arguing with you. It’s your choice. Do what you want. But know your odds of a long happy life are better if you go to the doctor, get the tests, get the immunizations. Then again, statistics tell us the wealthier live longer, because they get better health care.

Bingo.

This is one area where you don’t want to skimp. Then again, maybe you don’t have enough money to get the best care. That’s another feature of America, everybody’s on their own.

And I’ve got to tell you, at five in the morning Sollis looked pretty good. I still couldn’t rationalize it, I mean when was the last time I was in the ER? But maybe next time it will be more serious.

So I’m laying low, my cough is a bit better. But who knows?

I certainly don’t, but I don’t want to chase the dragon, I don’t want to test the limits, I don’t want to burn the candle on both ends. Because when you’re older it can catch up with you.

Then again, thinking about it Friday night, I decided I cannot become gun-shy, I cannot stop doing things for fear I might get hurt. If you’re not living life to the fullest, why live?

And the weirdest thing is as I was getting ready to go to the hospital, scared, I realized if I did die, I’d lived a good life. Maybe I’d die before my time, but how much could I complain? Then again, my father died at seventy, from the Big C. I wonder what was going through his mind?

I’m now at that age. Both of my parents are gone. Which means I’m next.

When it’s going to happen I am not sure. But I want to do my best to push it as far into the future as possible.