Bon Jovi’s Richie Sambora once commented on how in living a rock and roll lifestyle, you truly live it.  “You can’t just think of it as just a music form. If you live it, you wake up in the morning and brush your teeth with it.  You go to bed with it next to your pillow at night”, remarked Sambora ("Slippery When Wet" - PolyGram Video, 1987).

Naturally, the members of Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, the Rolling Stones or any famous rock and roll band can easily submerse themselves in the lifestyle.  Fame, mounds of money and an exceptionally high level of eccentricity helps create such a way of living.
 
But living a rock and roll way of life is not designated for only the stars.  We all do it.  Any local band member, studio musician, promoter, roadie or any wife/girlfriend/mother or groupie of a band member; even just the hardcore fans live the lifestyle.  We each have that ‘rocker aura’ floating around us no matter where we are or what we’re doing.  Though, our rocker ways of living can’t compare to those of the big boys; we do have normal jobs, families and problems paying our bills.  We live the life, but we also deal with other facets of reality as well.

Then again…who doesn’t?  MTV’s The Osbournes offers us a peek through the window and into the “normal” life of Ozzy Osbourne (Boy, isn’t that an oxymoron?).   Even Ozzy Osbourne deals with mundane issues such as parenting, pets, and houseguests.  I guess we’re not all that different from the big boys of rock and roll fame after all.
 
So what exactly does it mean to live my rock and roll life?  Over the years, it’s meant a great many things to me.  Being a woman in this realm can be bittersweet at times.  Women are kind of the underdogs of rock music in a way.  We’re good enough to be in slinky outfits in the videos but when a woman cuts an album, you’ll hear praise like: “She’s really good…for a chick.”  Even on the local scene, there are far more men in bands than women and the roadies are almost exclusively men.  The women who become important to bands are the girlfriends, the groupies (though we’re not supposed to talk about that) and the occasional female friends who either come out to every show of the band that they support (and bring lots of friends) or help with some sort of promotional task for the band; such as running a web site or mailing list.

I’ve both thrived, and drowned, in the various roles I’ve played for the bands that I have known and loved.  I’ve helped the bands I’ve known get gigs half way across the country.  I’ve covered for my friends in bands when their girlfriends were asking too many questions and I’ve come religiously to shows out of friendship and/or out of consequential devotion to various musicians.
 
But my personal musical lifestyle goes beyond even these things.  It’s the rumor that began my first day of a normal banking job that I had once…where someone noticed the small purple 8th note tattooed on my ankle and soon the whole bank was talking about how: “That new girl has got a tattoo!”  (Note:  this was several years ago…before EVERYONE had tattoos.)  It’s the obsession to buy that new Bon Jovi or Aerosmith CD THE VERY DAY it’s released - and if not I’d fear that my heart would cease to beat.  It’s the simple joy of playing one of my favorite CDs…loudly…each night while in the shower.  And it’s that greedy and fairly unrealistic silent claim that my psyche makes sometimes when a song I like comes on the car radio and I decide that it’s more MY song than the person I’m sitting next to…that I have more of a right to it than they ever could.

I’m known as “Sass” and I’ll always be a rock chick.  It’s a lifestyle - it’s the one I’ve chosen.  And if you’re reading this, then you can relate because you’re walking the same path through life that I am.  See you at the next show!

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