me from her room on her phone
to my phone in the office - “Pat-
rick! It’s Mommy!” I’m 55 fuckin’
years old… “It’s Mommy, don’t
forget to take the garbage out!”
I’m an Italian-American kid
from New Jersey who was a gar-
bage man till I was 31 years old.
I went to bed one night a gar-
bage man and I woke the next
day a rock and roll star! Strange
but true. My parents neither dis-
couraged nor encouraged this
dream of a lifetime. Ever since I
saw The Beatles on The Ed Sulli-
van Show - even before that - all
I ever wanted to be was in a rock
and roll band. But they didn’t
watch television. They didn’t go
to the movies. It was a very sim-
ple life for them. And they were
devastated when I quite NYU to
form a band called The Smither-
eens. They didn’t talk about it,
but they were really disappoint-
ed because the hurt registered
on their face whenever I men-
NJ STAGE - ISSUE 43
tioned the band. They just kind
of looked down at their bowl of
spaghetti and sighed.
So anyway, my mother’s older
sister, Florence, would call her
up. I was living in New York, but
I was still working on a garbage
truck until the day before we
went on tour for the first time,
opening for our rock and roll he-
roes. Do you remember a band
called The Ramones? That was
our first experience on the road,
but we were experienced our-
selves on some level in terms of
life. You didn’t quit your day job
until you had something lined
up, right? That was old school.
So, basically, what did it mean?
Let me start again. In 1986, the
height of technology was prob-
ably the telephone answering
machine. Think about it. It ran
on this now forgotten, but be-
loved system called cassette
tape. Remember that? When
was the last time you had to use
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