(Mom and Dad’s 50th anniversary – 2011)

For Father’s Day this year I figured I’d write a little about the relationship with my Dad and his impact on my wide ranging listening habits, as well as give you all a little insight around the title of my blog.  As a kid (and even to this day) my Dad and I rarely argued and when we did it was more the results of a spirited discussion where we may have more or less agreed to disagree.  He was never one to rule with an iron fist (sorry, no Motorhead puns here) but he more or less gave me the freedom to be who I wanted to be, even though he didn’t come right out directly and say so.  Sure, we had some basic ground rules that my brother and I would occasionally test but because we respected our Dad and the man he was (and continues to be) and we didn’t want to let him down.  Dad always did a great job of showing his sons off to his friends and those he worked with, telling everyone how proud he was of us.

Did I say “rarely argued”? Ha ha ha…  ’tis very true although we’d have animated discussions about various things, sometimes revolving around music.  I can remember having one of these discussions when I was ten or eleven and I was playing “Beth”, the classic ballad from KISS-  my dad…  “hey, who is that?  I’ve heard that before and kind of like that”…  me…  “that’s KISS Dad!”…  my dad…  “THAT’S NOT KISS!”…  me…  “yes it is!”…  you get the picture.  Or another time we somehow got into a discussion about the guitar virtuosity of Willie Nelson vs Eddie Van Halen (me…  “Willie Nelson IS NOT A GREAT GUITAR PLAYER!”  wellll….  no one really plays like Willie so he did have a point).  But mostly, Dad’s musical tastes have rubbed off on me.  Sure he’s more ballad oriented and loves more of a crooning style than, say, the outright rock and roll of Elvis Presley (who Mom adored and Dad likes the King’s softer tunes) but there’s nothing wrong with that.  He likes “Three Times A Lady” and I prefer “Brick House”…  he likes “I Want To Know What Love Is” and I’d rather hear “Hot Blooded”…  the funny thing is though, I like a lot of the songs he likes and I enjoy making him discs of his favorite songs and throwing in a handful of uptempo ones that I’m sure he’s heard in the past and totally forgot about (stuff like Chicago, Paul Simon, Steely Dan, etc).  And when I hear those songs on the radio that I know Dad loves always bring a smile to my face (and to my wife, because she likes a lot of what he likes!)

My all time favorite story though revolves around the title of this blog.  When I started putting this thing together a few years ago I was wracking my brain trying to think of a creative and unique title and striking out.  I was too busy overthinking and trying to be too fancy when it hit me-  how about making it more personal?  Once I made that decision the choice was easy as the “origin of Ironriot” was the accidental outcome of an animated discussion between me and my Dad.

I don’t remember the year exactly…  probably 1984 figuring the timeline, nor do I remember exactly what we were going on about.  It may have been something to do with school, it may have been me not playing basketball that year; hell, for all I know it may have been a minor quibble about what was the better TV show:  “Taxi” or “Mork and Mindy”.  At any rate I didn’t quite agree with something he was saying and his reply was the magic words that have stuck with me for all this years:  “ahhhh…  all you care about is that Iron Riot!”  Once I heard that I could not stifle my laughter and I had to say “no Dad…  it’s Quiet Riot and Iron Maiden!” (which happened to be the first concert I had seen the previous year).  I don’t recall his exact reply other than “whatever!” but his laughter about the incident quickly broke any tension we may have had about this particular discussion.

So on this Father’s Day, thanks Dad for everything and your inspiration for this blog.  I love you!