[Cory] The camp preceded that, and maybe information that was given to me while also don’t necessarily feel like my calling is to be
that is why I responded the way that I did with hearing, “If it’s what we think it is, you might not the greatest and ‘baddest’ guitar player in
the head injury that I had. I became a believer have a long time to live. It might be a few weeks, the world. I feel like music is the vehicle that
when I was fifteen, and changed my life. It’s not or it just might be fine.” It was like, “Wow, that’s I use to share joy with the world. And what a
like it was this big one-eighty turn, but it was the a pretty extreme difference.” By telling me relief that is, because if I were trying to be the
answer to a lot of things I was looking for. When and my Mom there was a chance that there best guitar player in the world, that’s just not
I was sixteen I was into boxing and jujitsu and might only be a few weeks left, I really took it quantifiable, and even if I did become the best
different things. I made a mistake by sparing as, “Wow, life is a precious gift, I really need to guitar player in the world, I don’t know. It’s like
with a heavyweight when I was a featherweight, make sure that all my relationships are good. when you’re king of the hill everybody’s gunning
and basically got knocked out. It turned into And if it is in fact only a few weeks left for me, I for you, right? It would be impossible for me to
this head injury that manifested itself in a weird want to make sure I don’t leave the earth with know whether I was the best guitar player in the
way where my right arm would go numb, kind anybody mad at me!” (Laughs) Maybe that’s a world, and it’s a position that I might not even
of like extreme falling asleep of the arm where selfish motivation for an optimistic outlook, but I want. Since that’s not the goal I can remove all
I couldn’t carry anything and I couldn’t feel my just had the feeling of, “Life is so precious and I the ego from my playing. If I can remove any
arm. Doctors did a lot of different tests, I went can’t believe that this could be it. In some ways, self-righteous egotistical self-serving part of
through what felt like every test in the book for it doesn’t seem fair, but at the same time it was myself as a musician and just know that the
the entire summer. At one point having them a pretty good run.” purpose of what I’m doing is to spread joy, then
think that it was something very serious, or
that’s the metric, and that’s the currency that I
something less serious, eventually finding out That was me even at sixteen, thinking to myself hang onto. If I happen to shine as a guitar player
that it was a T.I.A. It’s basically a mini stroke that I was just going to have the most fun I while I’m doing it, cool, but I look at music more
from the head injury, and my arm going numb could the next few weeks and just see what or less as a vehicle to share that joy rather than
was a manifestation of the healing of something, happens. I was going to enjoy every moment, to show how awesome I am.
I don’t know. It was the way that my brain to share joy, and spread joy. Fortunately, I was was healing. able to recover from everything and that really [WM] I understand the song “Dial Up” off of
has been the catalyst for why I do what I do Cory Wong and The Green Screen is dedicated
in music. I really feel my calling is in music. I to the modem you used to log in to your
I was sixteen, and tried to just digest the
photo by Dara Munis
February 2019
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