Tonight over dinner, my wife reminded me that 2019 marks ten years for The Great Southern Brainfart. Ten fucking years! Can you believe it? I can’t believe it myself. Time seems to move by so fast. Even though my very first entry was a review of a Poison/Cinderella concert in NC in 2006, the Great Southern Brainfart didn’t sprout wings until 2009 after moving from North Carolina to Atlanta, Georgia.
At first, The Great Southern Brainfart was just a plain old Blogger blog. It was a place where I collected random notes about music and even did a review here and there of a random show or album. It was just something for me and my buddy James, Spoob, and anyone else who would read it. In 2009, I found myself in an amazing position in life that allowed me to do whatever I wanted. What did I want to do though? The answer came to me when my wife took her first business trip out of town. I was going to be a writer.
Since 2009, The Great Southern Brainfart has been a one man operation fueled by coffee, beer, free Wifi, and food (both good for you and not good for you). In the time I’ve been running this blog I have seen bands break onto the scene, I’ve seen the same band’s fizzle out, and I’ve seen bands grow from fledgling upstarts to powerful forces to be reckoned with. From the dingiest, smokiest basement bars arenas and theaters, I have been lucky to have seen so much great music (some not so great music.)
I have made friends. I have made enemies. I have been high fived, and I have been threatened with bodily harm. I have been told that I am a shitty writer and I have been told I’m a great writer. I’ve been called a troll, and I have been called hilarious and fun. I’ve heard it all, and no matter what people think of me or call me, I’m just happy knowing that I’ve done something worthy of someone’s attention, be it good or bad.
I have had the opportunity to interview up and coming bands like Electric Citizen, Kyng, Graveyard, Crobot, Kadavar, and Savage Master, to name a few, and I have talked to bands that adorned my walls as a kid such as Anthrax, Megadeth, and Skid Row. I’ve had laughs and drinks with Dangerous Toys, I’ve goofed off with Tora Tora, I’ve had amazing conversations with Tom Keifer of Cinderella, I have bonded and become friends with Tesla’s Jeff Keith, and I have talked music with legendary King Crimson bassist Tony Levin and vocalist Jakko Jakszyk.
You’ve probably read all of this and said, “He’s such a fucking name-dropper.” Well, I am. I am very proud of how far The Great Southern Brainfart has come and that it has grown into this underground cult music blog that bands and fans seem to enjoy enough to welcome me into their lives, even if for just a brief moment.
People have many different ideas of what success is. To some, it is having a zillion hits on their website. To some, it’s making lots of money. To some, it’s huge accolades and awards. To me, success is any time a reader messages me to tell me that they’ve discovered their new favorite band. To me, success is when a band messages me and tells me that a fan told them that they heard of their band because of me. Also, success to me is being able to do what I love; writing about music, going to shows, and meeting new people.
Ten years is a long time to do anything, so to celebrate ten years of The Great Southern Brainfart is something I am very proud of. It is something I put my sweat and tears into (thankfully no blood.) The Great Southern Brainfart is part of me and in many ways, has become me. Whenever I’m at a show, and I hear someone yell, “Hey, Brainfart,” I smile to myself and think, “Yeah, man. You’ve made it.”
Thank you to all the publicists, bands, managers, venue staff, and label folks for believing in me enough to welcome me into your worlds and work with you for the greater good of music. Thank you to all my readers for being who you are and putting with me being who I am. Let’s do this for another ten years, shall we?
Happy fucking birthday to The Great Southern Brainfart. Ten looks good on ya!
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