Lizpire Records: A place for music geeks. . .: Today is my Bass God's birthday!!!!

My Bass God is Rachel Bolan.

Birth name: James Richard Southworth

Rachel Bolan is the bassist and main songwriter for Skid Row. He's also the co-founder of Skid Row. Rachel is also a music producer. He's also my favorite bassist of all-time. Yep, he's my Bass God! Rachel has dabbled with a few side projects as well (Prunella Scales and The Quazimotors). He's a damn good singer, too!

Rachel Bolan is the reason why I have a handful of bass guitars. He's also the reason why I got my nose pierced... it's all about that nose ring chain. Ohhhhh yes! I find him to be very inspiring; Music-wise and image-wise. I've been listening to Skid Row since I was a kid, but the massive love I have for them didn't fully occur until I was in high school. Yeah, the obsession pretty much started there. I had always been drawn to Rachel; The nose ring chain, the way he dressed... and the fact that he sometimes looked as if he had just crawled out of a sewer somewhere (same goes with the rest of the late 80s/early 90s Skid Row lineup) but still managed to look unbelievably hot. He fascinated me. That's a rockstar! I liked his attitude. I liked that he didn't give two f*cks about what anyone else thought of him. I'm a big fan of that. But it wasn't until high school that I could fully appreciate all of those qualities. I decided to Google him one day... and boy, was I in love! Everything I read was perfect. Absolutely perfect. Aquarius (me too!) Loves classic punk rock (me too!) LOVES The Ramones (ME TOO!) Yankees fan (me too! Well, I was... not so much anymore, but I still root for them.) He digs T. Rex/Marc Bolan (ME TOO!) (hence where he got his last name from). Similar personality traits... the more I kept reading, the more I kept saying to myself, "Dude... we're like the same person..." He's a tad crazier than I am... drinks/parties more than I do... and loves racing cars... among other stuff... but other than that, we are almost the same person (different genders, of course!). I thought to myself, "Finally... someone on this planet who speaks my language!"

(Photo taken by me! Santa Clara, 2011)

Also, the music he helps create and the lyrics he writes are amazing. A lot of Skid Row songs have helped get me through some things and I will forever be grateful for that. It's really hard to try and articulate the admiration I have for this man... you just have to know me, to fully understand. I think Rachel Bolan is one of the coolest people on this planet... and one bad ass mofo! Also, he's friggin' gorgeous. So gorgeous.

(My favorite tattoo ♥)

I've heard that you should never meet your idols/heroes (and blah, blah, blah), but when I met Rachel (and the rest of the Skids) a few years ago, it was the greatest night of my life. I was absolutely terrified. I had heard of some not-so-nice "fan encounters" with Rachel, and I didn't want to piss him off. But then I realized, I've got this. Treat him how I'd like to be treated... if you bug him during dinner (etc), of course he's going to be in a bitchy mood. Let him do his thing, and when he's ready to mingle or whatever, then make your move. It's all about respect... he IS human, you know! Anyway, he was absolutely precious. PRECIOUS! And he approached me. Yeah, that's right... and that rarely ever happens. Apparently, word got around that I was dying to meet him (or something?)... yeah, I was speechless. After he was finished eating, he came back and went straight to moi for a picture. I got a picture, a hug, an autograph, and I got to tell him everything I've ever wanted to tell him. And I did it all in a professional manner. Shocking. However, 2 minutes later, I found myself in tears. It was stupid. But I couldn't help it. I met one of my idols.

That was also the night I realized that I wanted to be a music journalist. Talking to the Skid Row guys came so easily to me. They were no longer idols or heroes... they became people you could hang with or have a beer with. (I wrote an entire essay on this night and about RB/SR for an English class a few years back *I got an A+*... if I get enough nudges I might blog it.)