Still Plugged In - Keeping the Guitar Alive When Life Gets Loud with Dave McCarty

s1e27 Still Plugged In - Keeping the Guitar Alive When Life Gets Loud with Dave McCarty

🎙️ Episode Summary

🎸  Guest:  Dave McCarty, guitarist
🎙️  Hosts:  Brian "Pops" and Steele
🎧  Show:  The Wired Garage with Pops

In this follow-up conversation with guitarist Dave McCarty, *The Wired Garage with Pops* shifts from gear talk to the deeper story — what it really means to keep music alive across decades of real life. Dave opens up about balancing gigging with family, how his relationship with the guitar has matured emotionally, and why playing in a band at 55 is less about ego and more about belonging. From going on the road at 18 to nearly quitting and buying all his gear back two weeks later, Dave's story is a relatable, honest look at music as a lifelong identity — not just a hobby.

✅ Key Takeaways

• Music doesn't retire — you adapt it.  Dave has been playing since 13, and rather than quitting, he's continuously adjusted how music fits into his life around work and family.
• A supportive partner makes all the difference.  Dave credits his wife of 31 years as the reason he's still playing — her patience and understanding gave him the freedom to continue.
• The people you play with shape who you become.  Older bandmates on the road at 18 kept Dave grounded and away from bad decisions — a lesson in the power of musical mentorship.
• Ego fades, band chemistry grows.  In your 20s it's about standing out; in your 50s it's about how well the whole band sounds together.
• Just do it — life's too short.  Dave's direct advice to anyone thinking about dusting off their instrument: if it brings you joy without wrecking your life, plug back in.
• The younger generation of live musicians is disappearing.  Both Dave and Brian observe that the local music scene is aging out, with fewer young players stepping up to fill venues — a broader cultural concern.
• Music as a mental anchor.  Whether it's gigging twice a month or jamming in a home studio, music keeps you moving forward — especially important heading into retirement years.

📝 Show Notes

Dave McCarty returns to *The Wired Garage with Pops* for part two of his conversation with hosts Brian ("Pops") and Steele. This episode goes beyond the gear and into the heart of what keeps a musician playing through the seasons of life.

Dave shares stories from his earliest days — hitting the road at 18 with older bandmates who became mentors — to the present, where he's still gigging a couple times a month at 55 with bandmates in their 60s. He talks candidly about nearly quitting, selling all his gear, and buying it all back within weeks.

The conversation also touches on passing music down to the next generation, the challenge of getting kids interested in live music today, the shift from 80s shredding to 90s groove-based playing, and why Iron Maiden fans will absolutely call you out if you improvise a solo.

Whether you're a weekend warrior musician, a lapsed player, or just someone who loves honest conversation about life and identity — this one's for you.

🔑 Keywords guitarist lifestyle, adult musician, keeping music alive, hobby musician, band life, music and family, aging musician, Dayton Ohio music scene, cover bands, Iron Maiden tribute, local live music, music mentorship, balancing music and work, returning to music, music identity, gigging at 50, home studio, 90s music, 80s guitar, in-ear monitors, wired garage podcast 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

If you look around the Dayton Cincinnati area, most bands, with the exception of a few, are all our age. And when a new band comes out, it's just we take different people, and it's like you throw their names in the hat and pull it out, and there's a new band. There's not a lot of younger musicians that I mean, there's a lot of YouTube artists out there that are phenomenal players. I don't know if they've ever played with a drummer or ever played with another musician, but boy, they can they can play on online, they're just phenomenal technical players. Um you know, and it's not just me that says this, it's like you like the way I just talked about Mike. You know, there's not a lot of younger people coming up behind, you know, our group of people to sit there and where I felt like there's a way to leave a legacy to where you can sit there and be a mentor to somebody. Um you know, the older you get, you know, the competition side comes out, you know, go goes aside, I should say. Um so you know, there's no everybody respects everybody for still doing it. You know, I'm not the only 55-year-old guy out there playing music right now. There's a whole bunch of us. Matter of fact, that's pretty much all that's left. You know, my my one bass, my bass player in my one band is 64. Now he doesn't look 64, but he's 64. I mean, think about that. It's just the younger musician just isn't there anymore. So I don't even know. I mean, who's gonna talk about live music in Dayton or Cincinnati, you know, if it all goes away? There's not gonna be really the legacy thing.

SPEAKER_04 1:31

Yeah, it's it tells you about society and just the social pieces of things. Yeah. People aren't as social as they used to be as far as getting just getting together and getting in the garage and playing music and then wanting to take that on the road. Either they're just as happy just playing in the garage and that's it, or just playing by themselves and that's it, or playing virtually with each other and that's it. They're not really wanting to take it out, and maybe it's risk of failure. A lot of these kids nowadays they want that instant gratification and they're probably adverse to failure, and everyone in our age group has, you know, busted our noses and chins up and everything we've done in life when we've grown up, so we were used to it. But I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 2:13

But we don't know what you can see of the people that go see live music. There's not the younger generation that goes out and sees live music. I mean, what we play, and every other band around the area plays, it's 35, 40 to 60 that comes out.

SPEAKER_04 2:29

Yeah, it's just social. I think social that's just changed. Yeah. Well, Dave, I I I love the conversations like this because they remind us just how music isn't just about chops or gear, it's about identity, seasons of life, and just staying connected. Thanks for being honest about every the highs, the step aways, and just what keeps keep you know, picking up at your what keeps you picking up the guitar. I really appreciate you being on the show. It's been a great time having you back on here. It's been 30 years, a little long you know, to get together, we have to do it sooner again. But thanks for joining the show.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

Today we're flipping the angle. This time we're talking about the life behind the guitar. How do you keep music alive when you've got a job, a family, and a body that's not 20 anymore?

SPEAKER_04 4:09

And if you ever wondered whether it's too late to plug back in, join a band again, or just fall back in love with your instrument, this episode is for you. Dave, welcome back to the Wired Garage. Hey, thanks for having me again, guys. Yep. At what point did you realize music had to coexist with everything else? Work, family, and real life?

SPEAKER_02 4:28

Um, that's a good question. Um, it's just one of those things that I I think, especially the older I got, you got to the point where, you know, like Brian, yeah, we both played sports when we were younger. We did a lot of other stuff. You get to a certain age where you just can't do it like you used to. Music was always something that's been a part of my life. You know, I've been doing it since I was 13 years old. And I just I I look back, I could I can't see life without it. And you know, uh there's gonna come a point in time where I'm not gonna be able to do it at the level even that I do today, which is much less than what I did even 20 years ago. I remember joking with my wife, you know, I I think we were dating at the time. We started dating when I was 24. And I looked at her, I said, if I'm still doing this when I'm 30, shoot me. So 30, 30 came and went, right? And then I looked at her, I said, Hey, if I'm still doing this when I'm 35.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

Or she likes you.

SPEAKER_02 5:29

Uh, and and you know, 40 came around, and you know, here I'm I'm 55 right now and still doing it um, you know, at least a couple times a month. So it's just I can't imagine, and and and has it always been popular within the walls of the house? No. You know, but it's also if I I tried quitting once and I sold all my gear, and two weeks later I got a call from a guy that got me in the studio. And next thing you know, like a month later, I went back and bought all the gear back. You know, it's just I just couldn't, I couldn't see myself not doing it.

SPEAKER_04 6:02

Yeah, I I used to play, and you and I played for a little while, not as not as good as you, but before that I played gospel music. I think over here on my the shoulder here, there's an album back when I was 14 that we made, you know, gospel music and stuff, and I played on keyboards. And I still got a keyboard over here. I've got my guitar I learned on when I was six years old up on the wall, you know, but I don't play like I used to, and I try to get out every once in a while. You lose it if you don't, it's like it's not like a bicycle. You just can't just get back on it. And I think a lot of it also has to do, you have to feel it. Music isn't something that is just strict, almost like math. There's a feeling to it, and I just I gotta garner that feeling again and get it going and get that juice, get those juices going again if I'm ever going to get up to where I was, if I if at all. But uh I I respect you keeping with it and everything.

SPEAKER_02 7:00

That's that's cool. That's cool. Well, a lot of it is the people around you, too. You know, if you're gonna play in a group situation, it's just as important to play with good people. You know, and I refuse to get in a situation that is ever hostile. You know, growing up, you get in and out of bands where you know things just for one reason or another take a take a bad, bad turn. You don't get along with something like you thought you would when you first met them and everything else. Now it's like, you know, in order for me to play in a group situation, I have to, they they gotta be friends, they gotta be good people. You know, and I've been fortunate for the majority of my life to play with good people. You know, I've I I went through a period, actually, probably the bands I'm in right now, I'm still one of the younger guys. You know, and that's weird to say at 55, right? But, you know, when I was 16, 17, I was playing with guys in my 20s. And, you know, I went on the road when I was 18, you know, for a year. And these all these people were four or five years old, older than me. And I look back on it and I'm like, boy, those were some of the best people I ever met at that point in time doing what I do because they made sure I didn't do, made, made bad decisions. You know, never got involved in drugs, never got involved in all that other stuff. And these people always made sure they that I stayed on that beaten path, stayed on the right path. And it's funny now, you know, I I'm still connected with some of these guys. You know, Facebook, you know, the one as as bad as Facebook is for certain things, it's good to reconnect with people that maybe you wouldn't have, you know. Brian, you and I are a classic example of that. You know, Facebook kind of brought us back together, and then obviously, but you know, I've gone back and thanked these guys. You know, because when I was 18 years old on the road, you know, being, you know, seeing, geez, everything at that point in time. Those people made sure I didn't get involved in it, you know, and when I could have easily made that stupid 18-year-old decision, you know.

SPEAKER_04 8:53

Yeah, we always we just had some sessions about mentors, and we were talking in that in a tech realm, you know, our professional realm, but even in the music realm, you're right, mentor just being mentored in a band and and music and and maybe as if maybe as a manager of a bar or a venue that helped you along. Those things really do mean something in your life and you're you know, as you're going along in your decision making.

SPEAKER_02 9:19

I I got a pretty fresh picture on my Facebook page. I mentioned earlier about my my drummer friend that had the uh the brain tumor, we did that benefit for him. There's a picture of four of us sitting there, and two of the guys on there were huge early on when I was 15 years old playing at bars and stuff like that. They were huge mentors to me. Um, and the other guys, like I has been a friend of mine since I was 15. We kind of run the guitar path together for 40 years. There's a picture of all four of us together. That's the first time the four of us have been under the same roof in forever and a day. Oh, wow. And it's just I wouldn't help when I told my wife, she goes, How'd the night go? And I was like, Well, you know, we did good things for you know the benefit, but let me show you this picture. Yes. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 10:02

How do you carve out space for a guitar today? How how do you slip it into your life?

SPEAKER_02 10:10

Um, a very understanding wife. We, you know, when we first started dating, we've been together for 31 years. And when we first started dating and, you know, a couple years beyond that, she was at every show, you know, whether it was a Thursday night or a Saturday night, she was always there. You know, as the years go on, it it doesn't involve as much time to do certain things, but it still involves time. And to me, the family life is more important than the music life. And, you know, I've seen, you know, friends of mine go through, you know, hard times because their wives didn't quite understand what they did or they didn't appreciate what they did, or they didn't respect what you know what they did. I chalk it all up to her. You know, she allows me to have that time. It allows me to have that, I guess you'd call it freedom, to be able to continue doing something that you know is still a big part of my life. And she puts up with it. That's just that's the big thing.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

That is a bonus.

SPEAKER_03 11:09

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

Looking back, how has your playing evolved emotionally as you've aged? I think you mentioned this a little bit in the first one, but maybe you want to expand upon it.

SPEAKER_02 11:20

Yeah, it's it's more about you you you you quit caring about. I mean, when you're younger, I don't care what anybody says, if if you're decent at something, whether it's music or whatever, it's very easy for ego to come into play. And you, you know, especially as an entertainer or a musician, you know, if you're good at what you do, you have that look at me mentality. When you get a little a little bit older, it's just your whole perception changes. You know, you want to impress people in a different type of way. And and don't get me wrong, when you get older, it's still entertainment, right? I mean, you wouldn't do it if you didn't want people to look at you and appreciate what you did. But it becomes more of a band thing. You know, I care more about if somebody walks up and says how good the band sounds, how good the band is, or how good my singer is or my drummer is, I care as much, if not more, about that than if somebody comes up and you know wants to pat me on the back for something. Um, it's more important to be a cohesive unit than an individual. And that just comes with age and experience, I think.

SPEAKER_04 12:25

Well, does that kind of get into what you just find more of has changed your definition of success? Has that changed since your 20s? That's more about the band now where, you know, has that changed, or have you always been that way that it's always been more about the band, you know?

SPEAKER_02 12:42

When I was younger, and a lot of my friends will say the same thing. You know, it's it's there's a lot of individuality about it. People would hop from group to group if they had a better opportunity. But, you know, when I think you switch from thinking, hey, I'm gonna be a rock star. I remember I remember when I was 18 years old graduating high school, my friends were going to college. I was going, I don't need college, I'm gonna be a rock star. You know, I hooked up with a band and I went on the road, traveled all over the country for a year. You know, I I look at my my mom now and I'm like, you actually let me do that when I was 18 years old. You know, I got a 24 and a 20-year-old. I would never let them do that. What my you know, my mom and dad let me do. Um but it's it's you know, you're only as good as your band. I mean, you you know, you look at you know the most successful bands, they weren't maybe the greatest musicians, but they were a good band. You know, and I think when you're younger, you don't appreciate that. When you get a little bit older, you you really appreciate it, you know. Because like like right now, the the group that I'm playing with the most, they're all very, very talented. You know, and it's not an individual thing, it's a it's a group thing. And ultimately you have more success that way.

SPEAKER_04 13:52

So we mentioned this in the first episode, but we'll talk about a little bit more again. But you mentioned shredding was more of what you did back in the 80s. Do you play differently now physically or mentally than you did back 10 years ago? Um, how have you changed? How have you evolved?

SPEAKER_02 14:14

I think so. I think it's more of a if you want to call it more of a mature type client. I really don't know what that means, but it's sound like a good term to use. It also kind of depends on if you're in a cover band, which is pretty much all I do right now, you got to fit the music.

SPEAKER_04 14:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:31

Yeah. So like I we do, like I mentioned earlier, we do the the aces high thing, the Iron Maiden thing. That's more 80s style type type music. So it's a little quicker legato type playing. The solos are meant to be. Um, well, actually, that that band taught me a lesson because when we first started playing with them, I thought I could improvise or make up, you know, the solos instead of playing everything note for note. I came to find out that Iron Maiden fans are the most finicky, most dedicated fans in the world.

SPEAKER_04 15:02

I've read it up. I've read some of the posts on your guys' stuff and just people how they mention it.

SPEAKER_02 15:09

Oh, if I didn't play it no for note, they would just, oh my God, you you thought I just, you know, you thought I'd burnt the building down. I mean, they were so upset, they're like, hey, what you played was cool, but it wasn't exactly what they played. And you, you know, if you're gonna be this and you're gonna be that, you have to play everything no for note. And it it sobered me up. And I went home and I learned everything no for note, and I said, I'll never do that again. You know, um, the other main band I play with, we do a lot of 90s stuff. And, you know, if you know anybody, you know, that's that's a music fan paid attention to where the 90s went versus the 80s and grunge came in, it wasn't a matter of being a guitar hero anymore. You know, they just wrote really cool rhythms, really cool grooves, and and they built songs around that. Nine times out of ten, there wasn't even a guitar solo in it. So, you know, the band I'm playing with now, we do a lot of 90s stuff where you know there's there's not a lot of room for that stuff. And to be honest with you, I'm just as happy. Because once again, that's the band mentality. The band sounds great, and people appreciate that.

SPEAKER_03 16:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:12

Yeah, it is about if you if you can shut the crowd out in a sense and just be you and the band for that moment and just play and enjoy it, that's what it's all about. Just enjoy playing with the with the rest of the members and just having a good, you know, just playing music together.

SPEAKER_02 16:26

You know, I actually succumb to the inner monitors thing. Yeah, that's a whole different world. You want to talk about you know getting rid of the crowd noise and just being engrossed in the band. The inner monitors will do that for you.

SPEAKER_04 16:39

Yeah. So if teenage you could see present-day Dave with that guitar in hand, what would you think?

SPEAKER_02 16:47

Remember, Teenage Me was gonna be a rock star. Yeah, you're still stringing it out.

SPEAKER_03 16:52

Yep. Those damn plugins. I'm telling you.

SPEAKER_00 17:00

So maybe this is some advice for Brian. What would you tell the 40 or 50 year old who's thinking about dusting off their old strat and getting back out there?

SPEAKER_02 17:10

Do it. Life's too short. You know, if if you enjoy it and it's something that would bring, you know, that that doesn't interfere with your everyday life, but still bring you some joy. I mean, Brian, I know you're a grandpa now, so like I don't I don't have that that privilege at this point in time. But you gotta keep yourself moving forward, whether it's grandkids, whether it's a hobby, whether it's it's something. You know, I I even think, you know, people that hit retirement age. I mean, I've seen so many people that have hit retirement age that just kind of let themselves just go. You know, and I I'm a firm believer on just having a having something that keeps you moving, keep you keeps you driving.

SPEAKER_04 17:50

Yeah, I've I've been thinking about picking back up, and a lot of it had to do with my son my middle daughter's husband has been playing guitar for for a long time. And he like you, he spends time, he gets home, he he carves out time that he can play in the basement, and it's kind of his way of just mentally balancing his day, right? And then my other son-in-law, who's married to my oldest daughter, he's starting to learn the guitar because he's gotten with the other son-in-law back and forth, right? But his daughter, my granddaughter, has a keyboard and a guitar, but she has a keyboard, and it's just everything I've got, just do I jump in and teach her how to play? I had lessons for different things and I never took to them very well. I don't know. I've been it'd be nice to be able to play with my granddaughter, you know, some music or something like that, and the son-laws, you know, just stuff like that, you know, kind of mixing those two loves together, my family and and the music, and just maybe have a July 4th cook out here at the house and jam a little bit. Who knows?

SPEAKER_02 18:54

I got I got you know, a really good friend of mine that's in that picture I was mentioning earlier. His son is an accomplished drummer, but he's got a studio in his house where, you know, his he's got an opportunity to sit there and play with his kid. I remember uh my son, this was probably about six months ago. And Steve, you'll get a you'll you'll understand this. I remember when I first started playing guitar, it seemed like it took me forever to be able to play like an open D chord or just any of those open chords and get him to sound just right. You know, and then to be able to switch from chord to chord and just be able to be real fluent in that. And it felt like it took, oh my gosh, forever. So my son, you know, he's never had an interest in music whatsoever, was walking by my studio one night and I said, Hey, why don't you come on in here for a second? So I handed him one of my guitars and I started showing him like open D positions and G and stuff like that. And he was picking them up within like like a minute or two and getting them to sound crystal clear. Then he was switching back and forth between the chords within, I'd say, probably 45 minutes. Jeez. And then I'm like, well, hey, you because I mean, you know, back in school they would play all those old 80s hits. So every once in a while, when they come on, come on the radio or serious or any of those other things. My kids would already know this. And one song he really knew was uh We're not gonna take it from Twisted Sister. So I taught him that open roof, and guess what? Within like a couple minutes, he's playing it. And he's playing it with good time, he's got good meter, he's got all this stuff that, and I'm like, wow, maybe this is hereditary. So then I started breaking out the Van Halen stuff. My wife goes, Don't push your luck. He's not gonna get that. But the next night he walks by the studio, I was like, Hey, you want to come in here and play some more? He goes, No, I'm good. And he hadn't touched this since. So I'm like, Wow, you know, obviously you got the natural ability, you just don't really care. He doesn't care yet.

SPEAKER_04 20:40

I've had a daughter of mine come like the IT stuff. I've always told her, You're gonna be really good in IT. And she's no, no, no, no. She went off and did journalism and da da da da da da da. Now she's an IT support. I think your son one day is gonna come back. He's like, Dan, let's, let's, let's, let's play guitar together.

SPEAKER_02 20:59

I I would love nothing more than that. I think everybody's gonna be able to do that. That'd probably have to be his idea.

SPEAKER_04 21:03

That's pretty much how things work nowadays. It's gotta be their idea.

SPEAKER_02 21:06

Right, right.

SPEAKER_03 21:07

How old is how old is your son? He's 20. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 21:12

Yeah, finishing up a second year of college. So he's, you know, he's focused on that. He works on the weekends at Dunkin' Donuts, and he's got $25,000 at the bank just working at Dunkin' Donuts. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 21:25

It's gonna be hard to kill him. It's gonna be hard to get him on a guitar when he's getting paid.

SPEAKER_02 21:30

Well, Bri Brian knew me, you know, to at least an extent that I didn't have $25 in my pocket when I was gonna get a big one.

SPEAKER_04 21:35

Yeah, we didn't. No, we we were pension pennies back then, man. Right. But still getting the beard down and everything else, that was for sure.

SPEAKER_03 21:42

So that's the company we work for, right? That's right. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 21:47

So when you think about the legacy that you're creating, both as a player, as the bands that you've played in, as uh a member. Of those different experiences, like the virtual band experience during COVID, for example. When people talk about that legacy and they talk about you as a player, what kind of things would they hope you they that they would say about your legacy there?

SPEAKER_02 22:15

The craziest thing is, and this is something we were just talking about the other day too. When I was younger, there were bands all over the Dayton, Cincinnati area. I mean, you could throw a stone and find a venue that had a local band. And I always looked up to those guys. And I always wanted to be in their position. And we fought and we rehearsed and we did everything we could to be, you know, playing those same venues alongside with those guys. In the same sense, those guys saw us coming. And I'm not saying they were worried, but they were like, well, wait a minute. You know, we got some potential competition coming up behind us. So to this day, you know, I play shows with some of those guys. Um, I'll go back to that picture again. Third time I mentioned it, you know, that benefit. One of the guys in that picture, when I was 15 years old, they brought me up behind McGuffey's and said, listen to this guy. And there's a guy named Mike Harris. And Mike played in the band called Our Tribal around town. Um Mike was, he's nationally renowned. He's, you know, had write-ups in magazines and everything. Um, I'm fortunate to have him as a friend. And guys like me can look up to him and sit there and say, this guy was a mentor. This guy was not just a mentor to me, but he really encouraged other musicians. You know, he was a teacher. He was um a teacher in different ways, not just teaching you how to play guitar. He taught you how to carry yourself, you know, going back to that ego thing, keep your ego in check, you know, type of thing. There's not, I worry about, you know, from a legacy standpoint, there's no younger bands coming up pushing us. If you look around the Dayton, Cincinnati area, most bands, with the exception of a few, are all our age. And when a new band comes out, it's just we take different people, and it's like you throw their names in the hat and pull it out, and there's a new band. There's not a lot of younger musicians that, I mean, there's a lot of YouTube artists out there that are phenomenal players. I don't know if they've ever played with a drummer or ever played with another musician, but boy, they can they can play on online. They're just phenomenal technical players. Um, you know, and it's not just me that says this. It's like you like the way I just talked about Mike. You know, there's not a lot of younger people coming up behind, you know, our group of people to sit there and where I felt like there's a way to leave a legacy to where you could sit there and be a mentor to somebody. Um, you know, the older you get, you know, the competition side comes out, you know, go goes aside, I should say. Um so, you know, there's no everybody respects everybody for still doing it. You know, I'm not the only 55-year-old guy out there playing music right now. There's a whole bunch of us. Matter of fact, that's pretty much all that's left. You know, my my one bass, my bass player in my one band is 64. Now, he doesn't look 64, but he's 64. I mean, think about that. It's just the younger musician just isn't there anymore. So I don't even know. I mean, who's gonna talk about live music in Dayton or Cincinnati, you know, if it all goes away? There's not gonna be really a legacy thing.

SPEAKER_04 25:21

Yeah, it's it tells you about society and just the social pieces of things. People aren't as social as they used to be as far as getting just getting together and getting in the garage and playing music and then wanting to take that on the road. Either they're just as happy just playing in the garage and that's it, or just playing by themselves and that's it, or playing virtually with each other and that's it. They're not really wanting to take it out and maybe it's risk of failure. A lot of these kids nowadays, they want that instant gratification and they're probably adverse to failure, and everyone in our age group is, you know, busted our noses and shins up and everything we've done in life when he's growing up. So we were used to it.

SPEAKER_02 26:02

But I don't know. But we're gonna do that. We even see it, the people that go see live music. There's not the younger generation that goes out and sees live music. I mean, what we play, and every other band around the area plays, it's 35, 40 to 60 that comes out.

SPEAKER_04 26:19

Yeah, it's just social. I think social that's just changed. Yeah. Well, Dave, I I I love the conversations like this because they remind us just how music isn't just about chops or gear. It's about identity, seasons of life, and just staying connected. Thanks for being honest about every the highs, the step aways, and just what keeps keep, you know, picking up at your what keeps you picking up the guitar. I really appreciate you being on the show. It's been a great time having me back on here. If it's been 30 years, a little long, you know, to get together, we have to do it sooner again. But thanks for joining the show.

SPEAKER_02 26:51

Well, absolutely. Once again, thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_00 26:53

For anyone listening who used to play and hasn't touched a guitar in years, I hope this nudges you a little closer to plugging back in. I'm still, this is the wired garage with pops. We'll see you in the next one.

SPEAKER_04 27:07

Thanks, thanks.