Interview with Byron; Part Two

Am I correct Byron, in assuming you were having a bit of fun at my expense in the first part of this interview?
Nope...there will be no charge.
And they said vaudeville was dead. When did you first pick up the guitar?
Let's see...I remember trying when I was about 15 months, but it was just too heavy.
I mean of course, when did you start to play the guitar?
Oh, I must have been about nineteen. Started on bass.
Bass? Really? Why the bass?
A few less strings to deal with back in those days, most only had three or four.
Hmmm. I've never heard of the three string bass. You had one?
Kinda...I broke the G string that first fall and it took almost nine months to get another one from the Sears catalogue. They had a tendency to substitute orders to we northerners...kept sending me E's. I still don't use the G string much...keep forgetting it's there.
Do you remember the first song you ever wrote?
I never wrote a first one. I skipped ahead to the third one.
Why and how did you do that?
Well, all the great writers said their first couple of tunes were really bad, so I figured...why put in the time?
But wouldn't that one still be your first?
I suppose so...it was pretty awful. The fourth one was too, now that I think of it.
So you had a third first then a fifth second?
I told you I don't read music. Are you trying to embarrass me?
Sorry, I was just trying to make some sense out of it...to put it in some sort of chronological order.
Okay, so I never studied chronology either. Can we lay off the science here?
Sorry, Byron. Have you had any major influences?
A couple of times, usually around Christmas...all the visitors and stuff. I take the shots every year now.
I meant influences, not influenzas.
Oh sure. I guess the classics.
Like Bach and Beethoven?
No no no...more like Ivanhoe and Robin Hood...The Deerslayer, Kit Carson, Two Years before the Mast..that sort of thing. Had quite a collection at one time.
How on earth did they help shape your music?
I went out and got a classical guitar...more strings than the bass...but they were a lot softer.
Is this your first interview?
First one that ever got to a second part. I think you're doing a hell of a job. You're not gonna make me cry are you?