by John D. Staff
About three years ago I wrote an article about Joe Persinger, a struggling musician who retired from the music business. A little prematurely if you ask me, but I digress. I was at the former site of his retirement announcement a month ago, and was curious where I could find the retired musician, and see what he is up to these days.
It took a few months to put things together, but we decided on a date to meet and discuss the last three years, and how his life has changed since. At this point it was late spring, and when I had hung up the phone we had set a date for September 3, 2012.
We met at a bar in a large hotel in Reno, Nevada late in the afternoon. As I waited, I noticed there was a peculiar crowd in town. It almost looked as if Reno has been taken over by the 1960's San Fransisco "Hippie Movement". I watched as one gentlemen walked passed me wearing nothing but a Speedo, another wearing a tutu and a large pinked feathered boa. I'm pretty sure at one point, there was a group of 20 people dressed up as bees talking about heading to pool for the "after-party".
Quite the scene.
As I turned around to ask the bartender for Pepsi, a man grabbed me on my left shoulder and greeted me with a hug. As we pulled away, it was the lone rocker himself, Joe Persinger. Mutton chops lined the sides of his face and his long hair curled at the ends. Easily, 10 pounds heavier from his
axe-wielding days.
He still bares no wedding ring. His hair is as long is it has ever been, and his counter-culture experiment seemed to have blown up in his face. There is something that he seemed to be weighing on his mind.
As the small talked commenced, he beamed about all his time off and what it has allowed him to do.
"I spent a lot of time in the southwest and became an even bigger sports fan. I started a small blog about various sports subjects. It mostly focused on Chicago sports, but it was a nice change of pace. It was just another form of artistic expression, I guess."
I was curious and tempted to shift the conversation toward the environment around us. The music blasting from the pool area was now bleeding into the bar every time the pool door opened. The oddly dressed persons are now wondering from the bar to the pool. Some even acknowledging the former musician. Once the urge passed, I decided to begin the interview.
The next few paragraphs of this article was going to spotlight the conversation that took place, but I just couldn't help notice what was going on around us.
The pool and pool area had now filled with so many people, they were spilling into the bar. Hotel security and it's staff were rushing to clear the pool area to allow more flexibility amongst the crowd. It was like a sea of freaks dressed from (almost) nothing, to weird looking vests, feather, flowers, and various other underground fashion that I have never been exposed to.
I asked the former lead singer "What the hell is going on here?"
"Burning Man just ended. This is the 'After-Burn' party..."
He explained to me what this art (really!?! Art!?!) festival was, to which I could not comprehend.
I began to wonder if this is what he has been up to these last few years. Embracing an underground society that shuns commodification and any type of capitalistic venture (accept possibly it's own, but I'm still trying to figure that out). He was an artist under the umbrella of a conglomerate that stood for everything this sub-society exists against. I was now really curious.
"I really tried to embrace this whole Burning Man culture. It seemed....genuine at first and I really wanted to see it for myself. My first year was 2011 and I had a blast. Everyone seemed into it that year, and the culture really seemed to be accepted by all."
"How was this year?"
"Not...the...same. I'll never go back."
I was not expecting that. There was a small pause that took place between us while I composed myself to try to redirect where I was taking this interview now. It was clear he didn't want me to pry any further.
Every so often while we were speaking, I would catch Joe gazing out toward the pool looking at the large stage built at the rear end of the pool plaza and smile.
"Have you been keeping tabs on the music industry? Talked to any of your old 'work buddies'?"
"Not really. I've been so detached that I couldn't even tell you what is what and who is who. TV just seems saturated in singing competition shows, which only translate to saturating the music market, if you ask me, absolute crap. When I started to notice 'Country' was the new 'Pop Music',
I........"
He was cut off by a pack of hippies. All half naked, wearing fur in unorthodox places, all their bodies painted, and they all smelled like Twinkies and alcohol. They begged him to follow them out to the pool.
The pack of girls led him through the sea of people and he disappeared around the corridor. The next time I saw him, he emerged from the large stage by the pool and the crowd was going nuts. There was some kind of dialogue taking place so I pushed my way to the pool area and started taking notes.
A jam started to take place.
It was like watching a man ride a bike for the first time since he received his driver's licence. The first thing I noticed, Persinger still has all that passion flowing through his veins. He began to add vocals to the jam, singing a melody that was harmonized with the lead guitar. When the lead guitar took over, he backed off and seemed to jam by himself taking in every moment.
Then the jam ended.
The crowd wanted more. The look in his eye suggested he wanted to appease them, but he was just soaking it in. Basking in the spotlight and the cheers of the crowd one last time like an athlete who was walking off the field of play one last time.
He walked to the mic, and to my surprise addressed the crowd. This is where things just took a wild and unexpected turn.
"WHAT A CROWD!! (cheering).....(more cheering)....You guys are great. I've spent some time away from the mainstream spotlight over the last few years. I got to look at my environment from another perspective and get a general direction of where things should go from here. Inspiration is a wacky thing. With it, you have all this energy that needs to be channeled. And based on a person's form of expression, is how this inspiration will be delegated to whatever source that person has to create from that inspiration. That is where Art is born. And I'm not talking about that guy over there in the front row that needs to put his pants on (crowd laughs. No word if 'Art' ever put his pants on). But inspiration, like most things, expires in time and in some cases, never feels like it's going to come back. But I will call it like it is. I just gave up. I quit. I was frustrated with the direction some people were taking and didn't feel the need to feed the capitalistic beast that was destroying our economy. As time has passed, things change. People change. Circumstances change. My two trips to Black Rock City these past (two) summers have left me in awe. They were a great two weeks spent, and they brought me a gift that I lost years ago. Inspiration. It sparked the fire that keeps the coals that burning and the passion flowing. And then I received a phone call....."
This is where my reporter's sixth instinct started buzzing. A phone call? He never mentioned a phone while I was vetting him twenty minutes ago. I made my way closer through the crowd trying not to disturb to many people. He continued.
"It was Marc Quatraro. We discussed our different paths over the years and listened to some of our old work. We started by listening to the 'Funked Up Soul' library and then moved onto our first project which was an equal collaborative effort. The 'what if's' started flowing, and that evolved into 'what could be' and that brings me here. To everyone out there, I thank you for being a part of this moment in my life, and I look forward to serving you as a musician, but mostly, as an artist who bares his heart on his chest. Thank you!"
He walked off the stage. I ran back to the table we were at before all this madness started, but he was not there, nor was he coming back. I tried numerous times to follow up what we started, but I basically got the "you got what you need routine". Can't complain about that I guess.
So there you go.
What was suppose to be a follow up piece ends up turning into Joe Persinger's comeback piece. How does he plan on doing this?? When will we see him playing again publicly?
I did receive a direct message (private messages on twitter) from the rock-star that explained we will most likely see something from this modern-retro duo by the first of the year.
In the meantime, he is actively on twitter (@BrewMastrJoe) tweeting about sports still. His timeline mentions that there will be some sort of format change in the next four weeks or so.
It must all begin at some point in October.
