#1: What The F'? Are you really driving while you're playing?

Yup.

I’ve been a teaching tennis pro in Los Angeles for 25 years. I'm usually driving to or home from the court in the videos.

In between lessons or any spare time I’m not with my wife, I’m writing songs. All the time. My iPhone is absolutely loaded with hundreds of songs and song ideas. Who am I kidding, thousands.

       The only time I have for music sometimes is between lessons. So, I started bringing my guitar with me in the car. But lots of days, the only time I would get is the 15 Minutes it would take me to drive home. ‘Til one day, it hit me that seeing someone singin' and playing guitar while they were driving might be amusing to some people and so I started videotaping it. It does seem to make people smile when they catch me driving around town. People don’t notice as much as you’d think they would. We’re all in our little worlds with our cell phones and stuff. I get a lot of smiles and thumbs up when they do though.

#2: What kind of car is that and Is it automated ?

                                       2012 Tesla.

                                             No.

I had a silver Toyota Celica for about 15 years. Great. Reliable. I played guitar while dirving in that all the time; never recorded in it though.

In 2017, I got a 2004 Prius. Another great car. Super cheap to buy, run, maintain and insure. Lots of space for my tennis teaching ball carts. And it’s a hybrid, so it got me closer to my goal of contributing as little as possible to the demise of our air and planet. I started recording songs in that. You can see it in a lot of the early cover videos. Kind of cramped. Obviously, no automated steering there. All knees.

In 2018, I got super lucky. One of my long time tennis clients had a spare Tesla S sitting around. That’s the kind of client you get on the West Side of L.A. (Thanks Lee!). It’s a 2012 so it doesn’t even have the cameras to allow it to ever drive autonomously. That’s why he sold it actually; He wanted the autopilot ability of the Tesla 3. I had been saving for an electric car for the past decade anyway and he gave me a great deal on it, so my wife made me jump on it (Thanks Babe!). Although I’m a lot more nervous about playing guitar in it now that I’ve got a car that’s actually worth something. It’s a great, great car. Not only does it look amazing and make you feel like things must finally be going really well for you, but that you’re doing pretty much everything you can car-wise to get us to an energy sustainable, pollution free world. Did most, if not all, of the Max X original songs in there.

So, nope, car’s not automated. Driving with my knees. My left knee primarily. Been doing that and playing guitar for almost 30 years. So, unless you’ve been practicing for that long, don’t even think about it. Crazy dangerous.

#3: When did you learn to drive with your knees ?

I started when I was 24 driving across the country, living in the back of a white 1986 Chevy Astro van with no windows, a Bunsen Burner and a mattress in the back, a keyboard, an ASR-10 sampler and a $100 Sigma guitar. I was going all around the U.S. playing the Pro Tennis qualifying circuit: Florida, North Carolina, Louisiana, Texas, Ohio, Los Angeles . L.A. is where I ran out of money. I was driving so much, there was a lot of time to practice. I learned to do it then. Like anything, you get really comfortable at it with lots of practice. Don’t do it yourself. It’s dangerous and I’d feel terrible if someone got hurt. Don’t do it.

#4: How did you even think about driving with your knees ?

                                                    My Dad

As a kid, generally, my Dad was just kind of mad most of the time. Ragaholic. Or just exhausted from painting houses all day. But this one time, when I was about 6 or 7 years old, I remember very clearly being in the backseat of his gray, Volvo station wagon and leaning over to the front seat when he suddenly put on a big smile, raised his hands off the wheel and said, “look, I can drive with no hands”.  Of course, my mom started freaking out, good-naturedly and laughingly scolded him to put his hands back on the wheel. I thought it was magic until he told me he was driving with his knees. And then he showed me again. I thought it was great. Plus, it’s one of the few times I can remember us joking around and having a laugh as a family.

    So I’ve got nothing but positive emotional associations with knee driving. But, again, I’ve been doing it for 30 years and I’m super comfortable with it. And playing the guitar. And singing. And scolding bad drivers. So, again, unless you’ve been practicing for that long, don’t do it!  

#5: You often have amusing banter about other drivers, pedestrians and bicycle riders. How do you feel about critiquing other people when you yourself are driving while playing a guitar?

                                                   Great.

   Ha, yeah, I feel pretty good about it, actually. I’m always in the right, of course. Ha, Yes, the irony is not lost on me. I play it up. But in reality, I feel like I’m actually hyper aware of what’s going on on the road. So much more than the average driver out there. Especially with cell phones.

     I’m always, always, always watching the road. You can check the videos. I never take my eyes off it. Yet, the average driver out there seems completely distracted to me. Half the time it seems to me the driver has no idea why they’re even in the car. I call them “Careeners”. They’re just careening around out there aimlessly, switching from, say, the far left lane to, suddenly, the far right to make a turn. How does that happen!? Did you suddenly realize you wanted to go in the POLAR OPPOSITE direction? Why were you not planning this out 5 minutes ago before you got in this lane. Now you’re blocking everyone and f’ing up their day because of your selfish obliviousness! Don’t get me started. Selfishness, disrespect and distraction all around us, all the time. I blame the Trump effect. Even if you mind-bogglingly voted for him, you can’t argue that he’s not disrespectful to absolutely everyone. Even his allies! That’s a super bad example to have at the top of our culture. And we need to fight it. That’s part of my thing: We need to get back on track, as a nation, with a little class, dignity and respect for everyone.

If anything, I feel like I’m the poster boy for driving mindfully and respectfully. But don’t drive with a guitar yourself. It’s totally stupid and dangerous.

#6: How long does it take for you to record a song while you’re driving?

    Way too Long.

It depends. Sometimes I can get super lucky and get it in one take but that’s pretty rare. Other times I can be driving around for 45 minutes just screwing up the over and over and over. Most people just see the finished product so they think I’m just reeling them off but if you see the outtakes at the end of the videos, you see me just hammering away at them. Fortunately, I’m crazy tenacious (or stubborn, if you're describing it from my wife's perspective), so I just keep going till I get something that’s at least close. I haven’t given up on a song yet. We tend to remember our failures more than our successes so I feel my average is about 25 minutes but it’s probably more like 15; 3 takes probably.

#7: Who does your blah… (recording, mixing, editing, posting, emails, websites, logos, whatever)?

Me. Takes me freakin’ forever. I’m super stubborn.