Never Too Late For Lead Guitar

A kid gets a guitar with strings so high it’s basically unplayable, struggles for two years, and then hears the sentence that can haunt a musician for decades: “Stop wasting your money, it’s hopeless.” Our guest Elad did what a lot of people do after that kind of moment, he quit. Then life happened in a big way: he grew up in the suburbs of New York, found himself pulled toward identity and purpose after the Yom Kippur War, immigrated to Israel, and helped build a brand new kibbutz in the Negev Desert from the ground up.

Now he’s retired and back to the instrument, and the guitar story gets even more interesting. We talk about adult guitar learning and why confidence changes everything, how rhythm players hit a wall when lead guitar and improvisation enter the picture, and what it takes to move from “I need the chord chart” to “I can actually hear where this is going.” Elad shares a breakthrough moment: pulling apart a pentatonic solo by ear from a cover and getting it close in under an hour, something he says was impossible for him a year ago.

We also dig into the unsexy parts of getting better: sloppy technique, unwanted strings ringing, speed limits, and how to stay motivated when progress is real but uneven. The thread that ties it together is community. Elad explains why posting imperfect videos helped him grow, why a non-judgmental guitar community matters, and how relationships inside an online guitar course can keep you practicing when willpower runs out. If you care about guitar practice habits, ear training, jamming, and realistic progress for older players, this conversation will hit home.

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Transcript

Welcome And Guest Setup

Steve 0:00

Hey everybody, Steve's guy from Guitar Zoom Academy here. Thank you so much for joining me. Today I'm going to be having a conversation with one of our Guitar Zoom Academy students. A lot of this super intelligent, amazing guy who joined us struggling to learn how to like a lot of people had played rhythm, different kinds of things like that. But wanted to stop saying no to opportunity because he felt uncomfortable with some of his skills. And so he joined the academy. He's been here for a long time. And he tells us an amazing story about his life and his experience in the Guitar Zoom Academy and how it's changed him. So let's check this out.

unknown 0:40

Okay.

Steve 0:40

So Alad, tell me a little bit about yourself.

SPEAKER_02 0:44

All right. Well, um, one way to characterize me would to call me an expat American because I grew up in the United States.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 0:53

Uh to uh Jewish parents in the suburbs of New York.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

Um, I would say it was a very secular upbringing, and uh um at some point I think my parents might have regretted uh the uh extreme secular nature, like totally ignoring

From New York To Israel

SPEAKER_02 1:16

my Jewish heritage to the point of uh of exaggeration, so that at when I showed some ability in science in uh in high school, uh my father knew somebody and he managed to get me accepted to a program at the Weizmann Institute of Science just after I graduated high school. I was going to go to university, and I thought maybe at the time I was gonna be a scientist or something. And so he got me on a program at the Weizmann Institute of Science in the summer of 1973. So that was there was a tremendous, and I didn't I'd never been to Israel, I'd never been exposed to anything Israeli, and uh I didn't know any Jews like the Israeli Jews. I mean, the Jews that I knew, they couldn't change a flat tire, you know. And here, you know, there were, you know, mechanics and engineers and just totally different kind of people, and it was a tremendous uh great vibe because this was this was uh there was a feeling of invincibility. It was after the Six-Day War, the October Yom Kippur War had not happened yet, and I kind of got tuned into this energy, and I thought it was really great, you know. And of course I didn't understand very much about what was going on, but I figured when I got when I got back to the United States and went to university, it was time to make up for all those years of not knowing anything. So I signed up for courses in Jewish history and Jewish philosophy and this and that, and uh and then the Jom Kippur War broke out. And uh I don't know if how much you know of I wasn't in Israel, but I was 18 years old, and there were some Israelis on the program, and they were certainly in the war. And I don't know if you know much about that war, but for the first couple of days it looked like Israel might lose the war and cease to exist. And um there were people at university, Jewish people that I knew that stopped their education and packed up and went to go over to help in any way they could. I didn't have that kind of commitment, but I was impressed by their commitment. And so I resolved that at the end of my freshman year, I was going to go back to Israel and really check this thing out. And that sent me on a course that of uh of uh self-discovery and identity that eventually led to uh me immigrating to Israel in 1979, and together with a bunch of friends that I discovered, I'll cut into the chase, it's a real long story, but I'm gonna make it short. I um was part of a group that helped to establish a um a brand new kibbutz, a communal village in the in the Negev Desert, in the really harsh desert, and uh a place that there was no place, it was right on the Jordanian border, and it seemed to me to be just like the best adventure that a young man could possibly have. You know, I mean it was as if the various governmental uh organizations and ministries and whatnot, they they they cleared the land, they paved a few roads, they put in a few uh buildings, um, got the rocks out of the way, put in an elementary water system, electrical system, a fence around the whole thing, and handed the keys over to a group of 50, 20-year-olds and said, Here, have a good time. That's what happened.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

Right exactly it was crazy.

SPEAKER_02 5:05

I mean, we didn't know what the hell we were doing, but we sure worked hard at it, and we certainly had our ups and downs. But at this point, um, fast forward from 1977 when the kibbutz was at when kibbutzia hell was established to now, that's like 50 years later. Um 50 years. I think it's 50 years. Can't do the math in my head, but I mean it's a thriving place, it's uh economically viable. It's uh there's a waiting list to get in, and we're we've we've doubled our population in the last three years. There's a a hundred kids uh running around because uh, I mean, I'm this I'm the founding generation of 70 years old, but we have a bunch of like 40-year-olds now with young children, and they're about to take the reins of this place, and the future looks really good. And so that's been this this whole adventure's been the story of my life. Wow. I've worked in various things. I for a while I was a farmer, for a while I was a dairy farmer, for a while I was a handyman, then I became an electrician, then I became an electrical engineer, um, I was a tour guide during the summers, and now I'm retired and playing guitar. That's great.

Steve 6:25

That's a great story, man. We'll have to we'll have to get together and dive even deeper into that.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

Is that so interesting? I didn't know that about you. Well, that's me. Yeah. So have you been back to the US since that?

SPEAKER_02 6:42

Sure. Um, in the well, my parents are now deceased, both of them, and I don't have any other family in the United States. My wife still has her parents are also gone, but uh she has a brother and his children and their families, and a sister and her children, and so less than I used to, but uh I I think the let no I I I I know when I went back last. I went back last three years ago to go to a high school reunion. But um before that, we used to go on a fairly regular basis to see uh our folks and sometimes do a holiday with them or something, and uh and they would come here and we would go there. And uh now I have some friends in the New York area, and I have a brother-in-law in Colorado and his family, and a sister-in-law in uh uh Massachusetts, and um I go there occasionally, and maybe again this summer, who knows?

Steve 7:48

Right. So, so tell me a little bit about like all of this stuff that you've done and and the things you've experienced. What kind of music did you listen to growing up? What kind of stuff did you enjoy?

SPEAKER_02 8:01

Right. Well, I always loved music. I mean, even as a little boy, uh, but uh um, but of course, uh didn't have uh much opportunity until I got to my teenage years, and that's I guess when I was a teenager is when uh when uh Meet

Music Roots And Early Guitar Failure

SPEAKER_02 8:23

the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show and cream. I guess I must have been like less than 10 years old, okay. And uh and I remember like I bought like the Cream album and uh and um and then I just I just loved that stuff. And uh and when I got to university, uh somebody turned me on to jazz, and I a person who had really a sophisticated taste in music, and so um I didn't know hardly anything about music except that I liked it. Um because I think I told you in our kickoff call, I don't expect you to remember, but when I was 12 years old, I wanted to take guitar lessons like every other kid that I knew. And um my parents bought me a guitar, it was completely unplayable. It had action like several centimeters high off the fretboard, and it was just unplayable. And while I was always a pretty good natural athlete and a pretty good student, I could not master this guitar to save my life. And after two years, the teacher called up my mother and said, Stop wasting your money, it's hopeless, forget about it. And that was that was tough to hear, you know. Um I basically put the guitar down for 30 years and then fast forward, and now I've got a I've got a 10-year-old daughter just taken a uh a year of um piano lessons, but the piano teacher was leaving the region. I you should understand that in those days, and it's not so different now, in in the whole 65-kilometer string of settlements that I live in, there are maybe 3,000 people. Okay, so it's a very sparsely populated area. There was like one guitar teacher back then, but he was a really good guitar teacher. And um I called him up and I said, Hey, you know, uh, maybe you've if you've got a slot, maybe you could take my daughter for guitar lessons. And what I told my daughter was, I said, you know, I used to try to play guitar a long time ago, so how about we both sign up with Oscar? You take guitar lessons with him, and I'll take some guitar, and we'll try to learn this thing together. And so I took I took a series, I I I signed up for 10 lessons with Oscar. I bought a guitar. I didn't have a guitar. I hadn't had a guitar in 30 years, never touched it. And to my amazement, now I was able to play a bit. Far better than than I could as a child. And I think the difference was that as an adult, you know, having gone through the army and whatnot, I had a lot more confidence than I did as a child, you know, and I wasn't gonna let this thing defeat me, you know. And after ten lessons, I mean, I wasn't any good, but I could I could, you know, hold the rhythm and play the cowboy chords, and and and it sounded halfway okay, you know. And uh Oscar said to me, You don't need to take any more lessons, just just just play. Besides, I don't really have time to teach you, but you're all right, you'll be fine. And um so that was well, my daughter now is 41. She must have been about 10, so that was about 30 years ago, right? So um so I've been playing ever since, and uh I was dithering around with this thing and that thing, and explore, you know, just like surfing the YouTube channels, occasionally finding something that's good, mostly not, but sometimes yes. And then I uh chanced upon uh Guitar Zoom Academy, which was a radical improvement.

Steve 12:23

Yeah, so so you were you were into rock music, then you were interested in some jazz stuff. Like when we when when I first met you joining the Guitar Zoom Academy, what were kind of your goals at that point? Like what did you what did you want to be able to focus on?

SPEAKER_02 12:43

I think my major uh weakness as a guitar player when we first met was that while I could sort of hold my own playing rhythm guitar in a basic

Goals For Lead And Jamming

SPEAKER_02 12:58

kind of way, um, I could not play lead at all. And uh I also needed to have everything written out in front of me in chord charts because I was not capable of even remembering what I was supposed to play or hearing where the song is really going or knowing enough about it, and I wanted to be able to um play lead and jam a little bit and improve all other aspects of my playing, including the rhythm playing. Um and um I've been I've been meeting my goals. I mean uh I'm pleased with my progress. I mean, obviously it could always be better, but uh but I think I've made good progress in the year and a half that I've been with you, and uh and I I look forward to continuing for as long as I can, you know.

Steve 13:59

Yeah. Well, and you know, I I've said this to a couple other students that are here too, but some of you guys are kind of kind of the leaders, kind of the inspiration for a lot of other people in here, whether you realize it or not. Um I hear it a lot from people that are that watch what you what you do and the posts that you make and the comments that you make, and it gets them to you know to open up a little bit more and and because that's one of the biggest things is when people get in here, it's like they're a little bit nervous and they're not sure. And then once they start seeing other people in the way that they interact with uh the instructors and with each other and the posts that they make, you know, those walls come down. So I I'd love to hear from you. Kind of just overall, like some specifics of what it's been like for you on that side versus on this side being being me and instructing and you know, trying to organize this thing. What's it been like for you on that side?

SPEAKER_02 14:57

That's a really good question. And your observation, I think, is right on. I I I'm aware of the effect that I seem to have on some people, and I don't really completely understand why, because except for the fact that I'm not afraid to put myself out there and and with all the warts and all the mistakes and all the everything, and I put it out there anyway, you know, and uh and it's like part of the cost of doing business. So and but but what makes me willing to do it, and I think other people see is that nobody is judgmental, which is really amazing.

Community Support And Posting Videos

SPEAKER_02 15:33

And uh, I mean it's one thing that surprised me was the level of camaraderie that there that exists between uh a lot of the people that are that take part in some of the open rooms and some of the classes, and i it's really quite amazing. Um so I really don't know what else to say about it except for the fact that um I I think that for me at least posting videos has been an important part of what I do for me. And if it helps other people, that's great, but that's not why I'm doing it. Um I do it because in the beginning I was super afraid of the camera. I've never been afraid of going on stage, but I've been afraid of the camera, which is really weird. I don't quite understand that either. It's like looking in a mirror or something. I don't really get it, but um, but I figure like with most things, like the more you do it, the easier it gets. And um it's been it's been true for everything, including practicing scales. The more you do it, the better you get. And the more I do ear training, the better I hear what's going on. And the more I jam along with other people, the better I get at it. And um I found uh I I mean you had the wisdom to pair me with Luca, which was genius on your part, because well, I like all of the instructors, he and I have a really good connection, and he seems to really get me, you know, and know what I need. You know, so um I I try to be encouraging to everybody and uh and I try to interact. Uh there are plenty of people who interact a lot more than I do, but um but in my limited way I try to help out. And if it has a good effect, I'm delighted.

SPEAKER_01 17:40

Yeah, and it I guarantee you it does.

Steve 17:43

I mean, I that's one thing that I always think about too, is is when you come into something like this, you're thinking about the scales and the chords and the whatever and the structure, which is really, really, really important, no doubt about it. But one of the things that that a lot of people find in here is that the community is something that is is really powerful. So I I just wanted to let you know that that there are I hear from people that talk about guys like you, guys like Chris, you know, that the fact that you keep doing what you do it it encourages them to do the same thing. Um what I'd love to know too is is uh what about like relationships, whether it's uh you mentioned Luca, like instructors or other students. Have you developed some what you'd call relationships in here as well?

SPEAKER_02 18:31

Well, as much as you can through Zoom, I mean, you know, I don't um I mean I yeah, I would say that I that I do I have a good relationship with uh all those people that you mentioned. Just recently, for example, I I noticed that Mike Anderson hadn't been around, and so I reached out to him. I say, hey buddy, you okay? Everything alright with you? I haven't seen you around. He confided to me that he is having a health issue, and uh he was grateful that I reached out. And same thing with uh Robert Perry and uh and a few other guys who are no longer with us. Uh well I I didn't that didn't come out right, that are no longer part of part of the Zoom Academy. Um Jim Sturm, for example. Jim, yeah. Um so I would have to say yes. I mean, that was I mean, honestly, that would be one of the biggest reasons for me to come to this thing in Rockford, because I don't expect to learn a lot of guitar in a day and a half. But I'd really like to meet these people and you know, have a beer with them, you know, and meet you guys, you know. Um I mean, Zoom is great, and it really amazes me because I've been and I still am members of other things like this, a little bit like it, not totally like it, but uh there are other good guitar teachers, you know, and uh and um I still subscribe to something called Active Melody with a guy named Brian, and he puts out really solid lessons, but I don't see any community there at all. Although there is a possibility. I mean, there is a forum, and people could write stuff, but it's not particularly encouraged and nobody does it. And I think the fact that you've encouraged it or made it somehow a major part of the whole deal has tremendous value.

SPEAKER_01 20:32

Because believe me, I know something about community because I live in one. That's great. So let's talk about your live performance stuff. So when did you start first playing like with a group? Whether it's on stage or not. When did you first start like jamming with other people?

SPEAKER_02 20:58

Um well I'd say twenty years ago, maybe um we put we put the um well first of all my wife plays flute, which is a good start. And my my daughter gave it up. She's into

Playing With Others And Family Music

SPEAKER_02 21:18

um graphic art now. She's give she gave up music, but my two sons both play, and my younger son in particular, is a phenomenal musician. I mean, he just amazing. Um and so I guess around 20 years ago, he's 31 now, and when he was just a boy, and he was uh he studied violin from second grade for six years until I had this horrible argument with the guitar teacher, with the violin teacher, and we stopped it because this guy was. Is just an awful human being. Might have been a great guitarist, but he uh violinist, but he was an awful human being. And my son would have come home crying, you know? And um and he just but luckily, luckily I went back to Oscar. Remember Oscar? I do, yeah. I said, how about you take my son? And he said, sure, that'd be great. So after six years of playing violin, and he was really good. I mean, he he was really good. He he made people cry with his violin playing, you know. And then he just took to guitar. I mean, after after violin, where everything is about the hearing, you know, he just became an outstanding guitarist. He did a matriculation in guitar and got the he got a 100 out of 100 points and did it for five academic units. In our high schools, you can major in subjects. He could have become a professional guitarist. Some of his friends have become professional guitarists, but he didn't want that kind of life, so he went in a different direction, but he still plays when he was like 10 years old and playing violin. So my wife and I said, we went to this other guy, said, let's make a demo, let's make a let's make a little uh C D. So uh so we did, you know, and he had all the recording stuff, and uh it came out all right, you know. And then a bit later, um a friend of ours uh said, let's uh let's put together a jazz ensemble. It's not so different from the one I'm in now. Had a different instructor, different leader. And we were in that for 10 years. We did that for 10 years, and at some point we invited our children to come play with us. So my friend at a neighboring village, he brought his daughter, and we brought Asaf, my son, and uh we played with that, you know, and uh then, you know, there are there are lots and lots and lots of Jewish holidays, and we tend to put on uh some sort of ceremony with it, so I found myself uh accompanying the community in in music. I wasn't very good, but I could do it, let's say, competently, in that it wouldn't embarrass it. I was I didn't embarrass myself, I played very simply, but I could always hold the rhythm. And so if I had people who could sing, then it it was okay. And so I've been doing that for I guess uh 30 years, and I was pretty much at a plateau of cow I mean, a little bit more than cowboy chords, but but not not right now. Um and um I would just basically do the strummy, you know, and it was good enough. So uh so I didn't I didn't have a problem with stage fright, I only had a problem with the camera. Right, right.

Steve 25:05

So now when you play what what has changed for you? Like you you you know, you mentioned the cowboy course and all that kind of stuff. What what is your confidence level like now when you go to play? Because we talked about, you know, you're still working on your improvisation, all those kind of things. How are you feeling about that stuff?

SPEAKER_02 25:22

Well, um I feel like I'm on a roll in a lot of ways. And I mean, just just yesterday, as it happened, I was looking at a song that we're learning for this uh jazz ensemble, um Rescue Me from uh

Breakthroughs Practice Style And Clean Technique

SPEAKER_02 25:41

uh uh what's her name?

SPEAKER_01 25:44

Uh Fantella Bass.

SPEAKER_02 25:50

And uh in the original version of that song, there was no guitar solo, but I saw an Israeli cover of the same song where there's a guitarist that I really like. I wouldn't say he's a great guitarist, but he's a good guitarist, and I really like the way he plays. And uh he has a version, he has a cover of that song, and he has a guitar solo in there. It's all pentatonic, and I said, I'm gonna copy it. And and for the first time in my life, I was able to really pick apart his solo and and get it not note for note, but close enough after about 45 minutes or an hour. And I would I felt really good about that because I would never have been able to do that a year ago, never in a million years. Um, but on the other hand, I feel the biggest challenge that I have right now is that I just don't play cleanly. I really, my my playing is sloppy and it's dirty, and it's got a lot of unwanted strings ringing out, and it's terrible. And I I don't I'm I'm having a lot of trouble with that. It's not getting significantly better. And um I need to put some more emphasis on that, I guess. But at the at the moment, I'm having a great time, just you know, learning new stuff, learning new scales, learning modes, uh being able to solo a bit, even if it's not totally clean. And uh and certainly it's not it's not quick. I don't have quick fingers, but I try to make it somewhat melodic and uh and and and sound good. I'm not trying not to just play random notes, and I think I'm succeeding somewhat in that. And uh, you know, you guys have taught me well, you know. Yeah, I want to start a conversation, you want to make sure that it's you have to leave some space, you have to let the music breathe a little bit, you know. And um I I I've been able to um assimilate that somewhat in my playing. Of course, there's a lot to improve, but I'm not I'm not really I I try not to be too hard on myself because I can recognize that I have made progress and I'm continuing to make progress. And I'm never gonna be a professional, which is fine. I don't, but I love it. And uh I I can say that I I'm fairly consistent in practicing, you know. Not not there are days when I don't want to practice, but uh but but there are days that I practice for hours and hours. And uh man, I love it. It's like the it's like the main thing I'm doing right now.

SPEAKER_01 28:30

Yeah. That's awesome.

Steve 28:33

So what would you say to someone who feels stuck? Like you you felt, what would you say to to them?

SPEAKER_01 28:39

Like in your experiences, what what would be something that would help them?

SPEAKER_02 28:49

Well, if it was somebody who is not a member of Guitar Zoom Academy, I would tell them to join Guitar Zoom Academy. But if it if it's somebody in Guitar Zoom Academy, I I I don't know, I just don't know.

SPEAKER_01 29:10

Yeah, that's all right.

Steve 29:11

I was just thinking, like, you know, uh what happened before, like one thing that you said that I think is really important is how you still recognize that there's a lot of work to do. You recognize that you need some work on cleaning things up and all that kind of stuff, and you struggle with the speed of what you're playing, but you're learning how to speak or sing when you play. And the big thing that you said was that you recognize your improvements, and that's one thing that I think a lot of people uh struggle with is that they're they get so negative on themselves, they get so down on themselves that they don't they don't recognize that they're actually making progress. So some of those things take time, they just they just take time, and there's only so much you can do uh in a day. You know, some things take a so some things are like you just mentioned, you know, now you've got the skills to be able to figure out this solo and it only took you about an hour to kind of figure out what you needed to do. But then there's things like maybe your technique that you know it's gonna, it's it's a long road, and and these things take time. So that you know, if you have any words of advice to somebody out there in terms of of struggling, uh what do you think that you've done that that has been successful? Do you think it's been like the plan, like making a structure, like developing something so you know what you need to work on? Like what has kind of worked for you?

SPEAKER_02 30:30

Well, you're probably not gonna want to hear this, but I haven't been terribly disciplined in my approach to uh practice. Um I definitely go down rabbit holes because when something I see, wow, I gotta learn that. So I just like, okay, I'm gonna learn that, you know. Um and uh maybe it's not the best way, maybe your way is better. But uh but for me, I kind of have to follow my heart with the music, you know, and I go where it takes me. And um, and so uh I've learned to make it work. I mean, um because I honestly see the improvement. I can clearly see that I've improved, and not just a little bit, a lot in a year and a half. Now, maybe if I'd made a I mean, I have this plan, it's on, it's right in front of me over here, and I I treat it like a Chinese menu, you know, like depends what I feel like doing today, you know. Not I don't make a week's plan in advance, you know. I just you know so so that works for me. I I I'm not saying it's the best way, but but I found that that's what is good for me. And so I spend, I I put in my work on the scales and the modes and all these crazy exercises that Luca dreams up for me. And I also uh play songs and explore new songs, and uh and then suddenly there's a holiday coming up, and somebody says, Hey, you want to uh perform for the community? Here's a song, and I look at the song and I don't know the song. I never heard the song. I say, All right, looks like I can play it, I'll learn it, and we'll do it.

Steve 32:13

Yeah. And and a lot, that's the whole thing, is that there's no for me, there's no one size that fits everybody, you know. And and you're in a perfect example of that. That it it's it's not like the same thing could fit everybody. And so those rabbit holes sometimes are what motivates us to want to keep playing, you know, to do the things that we do. I love your attitude, I I love your approach to things. And and you're so I mean, there's a couple other people that I know you're completely on the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of of rigity and and structure, but it works for you.

SPEAKER_02 32:47

That's the whole thing, is is it's I I enjoy your attitude and and um Well, you've been one of the things that I love about Guitar Zoom Academy is how open it is. And it's I mean, Pete, you know, I've told people that I belong to this online academy, uh, and it's pretty serious, I tell them, and I really spend a lot of time at it. And they say, Well, well, when's your class? And I say, Well, it doesn't exactly work that way. There are classes all the time, and I join what I feel like or what I have time for, and there's no syllabus, and there's no, and I sometimes I feel bad for the teachers that have to explain the same thing time after time after time because the guy who needed to hear it wasn't in the room, you know, when he needed to hear it, so he has to do it again, you know. But they're always, they do it with a smile on their face, and uh and it just and it's it's just very open. And uh and I think that for you've come across you've hit upon a I don't know, what's the word? Architecture's not exactly right, but not far from that, you've a system that is just fabulous, and it it just works. I think especially works because most of the people are not spring chickens, most of them were playing maybe the way I played, like sort of dithering along while life was was, you know, they had to make a living and pay a mortgage and raise their children, and guitar took a backseat to all of that. And uh now that they're retired and you know, have a little bit more wherewithal and a little bit more time, now they can devote themselves to it, but nobody is not nobody, but most of us don't have any illusions about becoming professionals or becoming real rock stars. I mean, if we can if we can play in a pub or we can play and entertain our friends and not make total asses out of ourselves, then we're happy, you know.

SPEAKER_01 34:50

So that's great, man.

Steve 34:53

Well, I tell you, thank you, thank you so much for the time together to to talk about this stuff, and and um I just I mean, I I've already I I think very highly of you already, but I I really enjoyed hearing your story about growing up, and I didn't know any of that stuff about you, so uh I appreciate you sharing all that.

SPEAKER_02 35:13

So yeah, it's a it's a pleasure. Yeah, yeah. I appreciate you too. I just wish I could attend your uh hangout more often, although uh I I see the light at the end of the tunnel sometime at the end of the at the beginning sometime in this summer I'm gonna

Gratitude And Final Thoughts

SPEAKER_02 35:29

cease being a member of this uh committee that I'm on, and then I'll be able to uh to be there. Yeah, that's great. I'm looking forward to that. That's great. And I'm gonna keep on keeping on. There's nothing that's gonna stop me unless something well, nothing that I have control over anyway. So um so it's great. And thank you for the opportunity to tell my story.