There is a small, relatively unknown club I speak of sometimes. It is so small and unknown, those in it are not even entirely aware of its existence. It is comprised of people, mostly ladies, who for whatever reasons, I wrote a song about.
But there is an even smaller sub-club, made up of those who have more than one song written about them. The first ever member of that club was my friend Nicole. The first night I met her, she immediately demand that I write a song about her, despite knowing next to nothing about her that could be used to write a song. So I wrote “The I Don’t Know You Well Enough to Write You a Song Blues.” Shortly after that, I wrote one called Whatever Nikki Wants to speak to her demanding nature.
From that day forward, she supported my work in a way that I often saw as totally inconsistent with its quality. In an email correspondence, she said that her computer had crashed, losing the pages of a book she was working on. I had never considered writing anything longer than three verses and a shoutalong chorus before. But that email of hers implanted the idea in me and lead me to start work on my first manuscript.
This week, she sent me this email.
If I was a musician, my success would be simple to define, and it wouldn’t have anything to do with how many records I sold. I would know that I acheived ultimate success if I could write a song that caused someone to sing along uncontrollably, and prevented them from turning off their car off when they arrived at their destination until the song had taken its time to finish.
I expected to get The “Best” of CD and put Punk Rock Chihuahua on repeat in hopes of turning back the clock at least for the drive home…but I didn’t. I let it play through, appreciating each song, most of which I’d never even heard before. It played like a soundtrack, I could actually hear you growing up through each song.
Then there’s “Doing Fine”. Holy shit, dude. I was bawling. I’ve heard it before on that reverb site, but it was like being reintroduced to an old friend. I played it over and over again on the way home and on the way to work this morning, belting out the lyrics…I can’t get over it.
I am so proud to know you. You are rock n’ roll. Motherfucker.
Everyone who strives to create things should be lucky enough to have someone like Nicole in their life. Not just someone who appreciates what you do, but who provides the energy and motivation to push yourself to be better so you can live up to their praise.
"The" Josh Gross Dot Org 
I hope you never stop creating things. You are quite good at it.
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