Sidebar: I believe I got the nickname “Onion” from a kid in elementary school who said my name sounded like “Bread ‘n onion”. It stuck. To the point that in high school soccer games, teammates would call “Onion, I’m open” when they wanted me to pass the ball.
This is the story of the terrifying moment when I first attempted a guitar solo.
I had been gifted the Tascam 424 4-track (see the whole story in My Secret Career 8b) I had barely touched it. It intimidated me.
I have never been a lead guitar player. In The Mahoneys, the other guys would encourage me to rip off a solo during rehearsal but I literally didn’t have the first idea how to do it.
You have to remember, I didn’t spend hours and hours learning to play. I picked up the guitar with the sole idea of writing songs. I would hear a melody in my head and then attempt to accompany myself. I didn’t attempt a scale until I was 27 years old and had been playing full time for five years.
But the day came when I left a space on a recording where a guitar solo might rest.
Several takes and nervous breakdowns later, I came up with the following. But you’ll have to listen to the whole song to hear my shaky lead debut. It’s a solo approximately three seconds long.
Such A Place, from 1995’s “Beauty Is Ordinary” by Onion.
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