On the Way Home

Once again we've crammed a ton of events into a small space in time. After breakfast we went to the National Civil Rights Museum. Chilling, breathtaking and left me speechless. When I actually saw the spot where Dr. King was assassinated just gave me chills. I was left speechless after our tour and the visit is forever engrained in me.

Afterwards, while in a state of deep emotional retroflect, we toured Gibson Guitars which was informative and fun. Nice to see how my favorite guitar is made.

Then we went to the "Rock-n-Roll Mecca", Sun Records. Truly an amazing place. I had been there before back around 1995 with my old band Vibe Tribe. You can just feel the greatness in the room when you are there. I touch the walls and feel my way around and the sense of magnaminity is just overwhelming. Both times that I have been there now I take with me the history and respect of my past but an inspiration to create my own future.

We met Charlie's friend Ron at Memphis Drum Shop and ogled over some killer vintage drums then ate at the famous Corky's for even more ribs... oof! I'm stuffed!

So now as I'm writing this Charlie's playing everything from Pat Methany to Stevie Wonder to Sting and I'm digging it. He even let us listen to some of his demos which sound great.

To sum it all up, this trip has changed my life. I've learned to look at what I've been through in a whole new perspective, been educated and emotionally touched and became even closer to God...

...just with 3 musicians, a Fender Rhodes and a pilgrimage to Memphis.

A Man Named Roger.

Yesterday was a completely epiphanionic (is that a word?) kind of day. As we rolled in to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Charlie, Steve and I had been cracking jokes, discussing music (duh, we're musicians) and talking about life, basically being human. As Lola (our GPS) was directing us to our destination I had a feeling that something special, life-changing you could say was going to happen.. well it did. We were driving to Roger's house - we didn't know what to expect; just driving along winding roads where on the right side were traileresque type of tin-roof rusted kinda houses were standing with old beat-up cars in the lawns and on the other were $500,000 to one million dollar houses stood overlooking a beautiful lake.

Coming up to Roger's street was a treat also. We were only 2 houses away and next thing Steve yells out, "DOG! - DOG!----- HEY DOG! DOG!!" Charlie slams on the brakes, I got a skid mark on my head from it rubbing on the headliner of the truck , Steve had one in his "drawls" and then a bunch of barking... Yes, the dog was okay. I think we were more traumatized.

We drove into Roger's driveway and waited for him to arrive. He has this beautiful house overlooking the lake and the other houses below his. A wonderful site. His SUV pulls into the garage and then - lowers to the ground. He gets out and crawls into a wheelchair... "Nice to meet y'all. I 'm Roger". Charlie, Steve and I kinda glance at each other...

We go into his house and it is beautiful. Even more impressive was the priceless music gear he had in his living room. When we started talking to him he started telling us his story...

Roger was in a car accident a couple years ago that left him paralyzed. Soon after his wife divorced him and he has been left to fend for himself. He can't play music anymore because he barely has use of his hands. A true tragedy indeed. Here is a fellow musician who has been playing since he was 5, father was a preacher and has always been involved with music. When you see the gear he had you'd know. I'd say over $50,000 worth of beautifully kept vintage gear.

I think back to everything that has happened to me in the last year, I tend to think, "Wow, I thought I had it bad!" Even with everything that has happened to me I can still PLAY music. He can't anymore. He has to sit there and watch everyone else do what he loves to do! Now he's lost his wife, his ability to walk and is on the verge of losing his house! What is even astonishing more is that he still has a good attitude about it... He is at peace at where he's at because he has a true faith in God. Wow.... powerful stuff.

I knew this trip was going to be life-changing... I just never knew how much.

... and as for the dog...

... he was sleeping in his driveway...

SUBSTANTIALISCIOUS!...

Just outside of Nashville on the way to Tuscaloosa, Alabama...

Here we are now after a pit stop, buying an inverter for my laptop, getting Mt. Dew, Kippered Beef Steak and a SUBSTANTIALISCIOUS...

While waiting line for the 1 stall men's "bathroom" we ran into this guy who was doing the "pee-pee" dance so bad that Charlie let him cut in line. While everyone was waiting for someone to come out, the man was talking about how he was struggling raising four kids and one who has cerebal palsy. Funny as he left he shouted to us "God Bless you guys". How surreal. It's really amazing the stories you find out about people when you're on the road!

We now pass the rocket at the rest area entering Alabama about 40 miles outside of Huntsville, we were noticing the old plantation-style houses with the old shack-like "slave quarters"... An image that drives home the fact that we definitely are in the south. After seeing that image Charlie had asked Steve and I if we had been to the National Civil Rights Museum. So it looks like we're going to make another stop on our journey.

I find it humorous that a major fireworks store is also a gas station... hmmm.

.. oh, what a trip it's been... and we're just getting started.

3 Musicians, a Fender Rhodes and a pilgrimage to Memphis.

Well, here it begins... 5:39 in the morning on Monday, February 9th, 2009.

A real-life story about three Christians who are musicians on a little journey to pick up a 1979 Fender Rhodes with a stop off to Memphis to visit some musician staples... Sun Records, Gibson and if time permits, the Memphis Drum Shop.

As we are rolling down I-75 here in Kentucky just past the I-75/I-71 split, I am reminded that this trip is more than just about picking up a piece of really cool vintage gear. It's more about 3 Christian musicians going on a road trip and sharing the experience together. Discussing our lives and histories and how God works within us. The players in this little odyssey are 2 VCC Worship Pastors, Charlie Hines and Steve Means and just little ole me, the neophyte, John Harmon.

What will this trip bring? Only God knows. Hopefully He will work his magic with us and bring about some epiphany.. then again maybe not. Who knows? We'll just see where God leads us and see what happens! What I do know is that there is something exciting in the air already and I can't wait to see what happens next!

Once again Glenn speaks volumes

Is Glenn Paranoid?
February 3, 2009 - 13:02 ET
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GLENN: You know what this is? This is Michael Phelps. This is Michael Phelps going to his mom when she calls him up and says, "Michael, come over to the house. I just saw a picture of you with a bong. You want to come over and talk to Mom for a second?" Because that's what the government is, the ultimate parent. We've created a government that is our parent. They know better. Well, that's good if you've got a great parent.
So they call, you know, Michael's called by his mom and Michael comes over to the house and he's like, "I'm sorry, Mom." Well, now what happens? "Michael, have you thought about this? You've just lost Kellogg's. Kellogg's doesn't want to do anything. General Mills doesn't want to do anything with you anymore." "Well, gee, how am I going to pay my rent?" "I don't know, Michael, how are you going to pay all your rent? You went out and you spent all this money and now you've done this and now General Mills doesn't want anything to do with you." "Well, I can make it up." "Well, not right now you can't." "Well, Mom, I don't want to lose everything." "I know, sweetheart, I don't want you to fail, either. So here's some money, and I'll pay your rent."
But in this scenario Michael's mom is not a good mom. Let's just say Michael's mom is a little bit nuts and Michael's mom then says, "Okay, you've paid your rent and everything else?" "Yes, mom, I have." "Well, did you go and buy any dope? "What?" "Did you buy any pot?" That's what the government is doing to CitiBank and Bank of America. What caused the problem they are telling them to do with our money, with Michael Phelps' mom's money. That doesn't make any sense. But the businesses are doing it because quite honestly I think they see the handwriting on the wall. They see where the world is going. Do you see where the world is going? The world is going towards global corporations and governments being won. I ain't gonna be a part of that, jack. I don't know about you. You want to put a bullet in my head, you're going to have to put a bullet in my head before I stop speaking out about that, uh-uh. So now let's go to the Smart Grid. Smart Grid, don't get me wrong, Smart Grid is great technology. I am not a technophobe. I don't mind technology, you know, I like the Internet, I like e-mail. Smart Grid is a very good thing. The Smart Grid allows the energy companies, currently only highly regulated by the government, they allow these energy companies to be able to see how much power is being used, who's using it, et cetera, et cetera, and to be able to dial it back if there's a problem. This Smart Grid not really designed for people like us. It's really designed for countries that have gone on to the wind and solar bandwagon because wind and solar, wind sometimes just stops, and solar doesn't work at night and you can't store that energy. So what do you replace it with?
Well, France, they replace it with nuclear energy. "But that's evil. Listen, it would be like France and everything like that. They're wrong on that."

So if we went wind and solar, what are you going to do at night? Well, the Smart Grid was meant to designed to balance those kinds of systems. So when there's not enough juice, the Smart Grid can say, "Okay, I need to turn this off and this off and this off and I need to reduce the power in these houses, et cetera, et cetera." The Smart Grid, think of it this way, the Smart Grid is your outlet. It's like the Internet. Whenever you plug something in, it says, "Oh, the blender's on. Oh, the refrigerator's been turned down. Oh, they just turned up their heat. Oh, the air conditioning is on, at this temperature. Oh, the Beck family just turned on their television in the upstairs bedroom. They also have one running in the basement. Oh, somebody just opened the front door because the alarm just went off." Anything that uses power, that information can be taken out through the electrical outlets, and it's only -- they just wanted you to feel better about this. The government has explained it only goes into a big machine. A big machine? Is that how we're describing computers now? Is that supposed to make me feel better? It goes into a big machine? What, are you talking to a second grader?

Now, I am not saying that Obama or anybody else is going to use this system in nefarious ways, and when I say nefarious ways, what I mean is for less than a dollar per appliance, you can create a chip and put a chip in every appliance -- for less than a dollar you can put a chip in every appliance that communicates with the Smart Grid that says, "Television is on." Think of this as TiVo for your life. TiVo is the greatest invention ever for entertainment. I love TiVo. I have TiVo, and Smart Grid will tell you soon exactly what rooms I have TiVo in. But I have TiVo and there's not a problem with it, but just understand when you plug TiVo in, it's not just bringing information into your house, it's sucking information out. It is telling people like me that look for ratings, it tells me exactly when you started watching, at what time or what point in the program you stopped watching, which commercials you watched, which ones you didn't, which segments you forward through. It watches all of your -- everything that you watch, you don't think somebody is watching -- you know, everybody walks out of the room and you went, "Okay, what was that on Cinemax?" Nobody in the house knows it except you and TiVo. TiVo records everything that you do and it shoves it out into a big machiny thing.

Here's why I bring this up. Again I'm not afraid of technology. Technology is good. I just happen to believe, if I can remember the quote from George Washington, government is evil, a necessary evil. As long as we understand that government is inherently evil, it's necessary, but we don't ever give it too much power, we'll be okay. But again I go back to the global situation. Let's just take America out. Do you think that it is unreasonable to believe that sometime in our life or our children's lives there will be a global attempt to take away U.S. citizens' rights. There is a movement afoot. Think about where we were in the year 2000 and to where we are now on our rights and globalization and everything else. Look what's happened in the last nine years. Project nine years out. Project nine months out. Say the economy collapses.

You've already heard our allies in Great Britain, in France, in Germany, in Spain, in Italy, in Australia saying that classic liberalism is dead, that financing and separate rules for financing and the way governments spend is over. It now needs to be -- these are our friends saying this -- it now needs to be controlled by a global body. Wow, that doesn't sound like a good idea to me. What equipment do they have to control you? Well, the Smart Grid, of course if we're killing the planet, well, we better make sure everybody's thermostat is at 72 degrees. How much are they using? What are they doing? This isn't general block by block. This is your house and you're giving him that information because it makes all of our lives better. TiVo's never been used against you. The computer's never been used against you. Of course not. While we may have a bad government and a corrupt government right now, we don't have an evil government. But because we've had not an evil government for so long, too many of us are forgetting what George Washington said, that government is evil. Once there's a global government that you have no voice in, wow. How much control do you want them to have? How much information do you want them to have?

In this stimulus package your personal records of medical records are all going to be ingested into a machiny-like thing for the government. The government will have control of all of your medical records. They are the great bank on their mission. I'm sure there's never going to be a problem with that. They will never lose it. They will never get those records long. They will never misplace or screw up my records object somebody else's. We can just federalize all of our medical information, oh, my gosh, it will be a perfect world, won't it?

I go to this. You know I'm a spokesperson of GM. I believe in GM. I believe in GM, before I was a spokesperson, I drove only GM cars for the last, I don't know, ten years. I believe in GM. I love OnStar. I love GPS. Mine usually says, "At the nearest possible location, make a U-turn," it usually says that to me, but I love GPS. I don't even know how we did maps before. How did we get anywhere without GPS? OnStar, I love the fact -- it's snowing now in New York. If my wife and my kids are out, I love the fact that if they have an accident, they'll call her: "Mrs. Beck, your air bags have been deployed; are you okay." I love that. I love the fact that she could be stuck in the snow and she could push "OnStar, go ahead." "Yeah, I'm stuck in the snow. Can you send help." I love that. But do you know that OnStar has the capability of turning your engine off? Did you know, how is the capability of defeating, you know how it says air pressure in your tires, yeah, that's weird. What a great thing that is. It works the other way. They can deflate your tires. Well, how come I haven't heard of that? Because OnStar won't. Onstar doesn't. Why? Civil libertarians.

GM, I've talked to the people at GM. "Glenn, do you know what that would be like, I mean, the ethical questions, the civil libertarians? We can't do that. We're there to protect and we're protecting our customer, the individual. It's somebody else's for society. This is a contract between us and the OnStar user." And the government has tried: We've got a chase, deflate their tire, shut their engine off. Sorry, contract's not with you, the government.

But if the bailouts would go through, while GM wouldn't do that, do you believe the government wouldn't do that? I don't. The merging of technology, of companies and the government, extraordinarily dangerous. That's what the Smart Grid's all about, making your life better. And don't get me wrong. It truly will make your life better. It truly will be a blessing for energy. It is the technology of the future. Unfortunately I believe we are headed towards the governments of the past.