Air Carl

What Became Of That Guy? May 25, 2011

In my days of touring the country and performing at many, many college campuses, I had a chance to meet a good number of interesting people, some of whom I am still in touch with and others who just blended into my expansive distant memory files. One young man was not possible to forget.

It was sometime in the late 1980′s during a swing through Central Florida. I had just completed my daytime mini-concert performance at Polk Community College in Winter Haven when I was approached by a young male student. He appeared to be somewhere between the ages of 19 and 24. It was fairly routine to meet members of my audience following a show, usually a nice compliment was politely given to me during times like this.

What I was not expecting to hear from this young man was what he told me about himself. I was used to receiving compliments after a show which would be accompanied by the person telling me his or her name, their thoughts on music, and the usual small talk that goes along with such exchanges. “You really made my day,” the young student told me. This comment was slightly higher than the usual post-show compliment. I expressed my thanks for the kind remark when he then suddenly added : “Yeah, it’s been a rough week.” without as much of a pause he continued: “I just found out I have a malignant tumor on my back. It’s Melanoma. Your music made me feel so much better.”

I had been going around the U.S. playing mainly other people’s music- sometimes not paying very much mind to the possible effects it may have had on someone. I grew accustomed to the smiles and the applause as well as the occasional yawn, but I had never heard someone say something like this relating to one of my performances.

I thought about this young man whose name I do not remember, for the rest of that week and from time to time to this very day. Despite all of the magic of the internet, I don’t know how I could ever find the outcome to this guy’s frightening situation. Was it caught early enough to be treated? Was the outcome bad?

We go through life at a speed that does not always allow for us to focus on someone we simply come across in passing. What I took from this encounter was two things: the effect that music has on people, as well as the idea that whatever problems I may face, there is someone, usually in the very same room, who has a much larger battle to face.