Life is Better if You Pursue Your Passion
Scott K. Fish, Special to the Piscataquis Observer • December 8, 2017

All my life I wanted to be either a writer or a musician. At age 18, figuring I didn’t have enough life experience under my belt to write anything worth reading, I refocused most of my energies on becoming a professional musician: someone who earns a living playing music.

I had been smitten by the drums 12 years earlier, but didn’t own my first drumset until I was 18. Before then, I started easing my way into high school garage bands as a lead singer. One of those garage bands — I think we called ourselves “Potter’s Field,” — was hired to play a school dance. Our drummer, Denny, quit the band a few days before the dance, and no one could change his mind.

Finally, Denny said to us, “You can use my drumset, if you want to.” I don’t know what was going on with Denny, but it wasn’t that he wanted to sabotage the band. He just really, really didn’t want to play anymore.

As sorry as I was to see Denny quit, when he offered the use of his silver sparkle Gretsch drumset — I saw an opportunity. “I’ll play drums,” I announced to the other band members. “Well, who’s going to sing lead?” asked Jimmy, the bass guitarist. “I will,” I said. “I’ll do both.”

At that time I had neither sung nor played drums before in public. I knew the basic mechanics of playing drumset, but I still had never owned a set. Other than noodling around on friends’ drums for a few minutes, I had never played a full drumset. But I certainly did know the “Potter’s Field” song repertoire.

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