passenger pigeon

Yeah, yeah. Shut up, kid. And don’t move around too much or you’ll hurt yourself — you’re not in the hospital for laughs. Besides, I know what you’re going to say. Same thing they all say. You’re my biggest fan.

Well, you’re not so bad yourself. I heard what you did down in Denver this weekend. Took out a whole bunker, no backup, not even a rhythm guitarist. Just you and your axe and the music. The way it was meant to be. P-Funk’s probably going to give you a fucking medal or something.

You don’t want to hear about it, huh? That’s why I came down here. I could see it in your eyes when they put you on TV. Let me answer the question you’ve been wanting to ask since I walked in — no. No matter how many people you kill, it never gets any easier. That’s just how killing is. You’ll never feel good about it. You’ll never even feel okay about it.

Now let me explain to you why we have to do it anyway. One of those pigs you took down was the mayor of Denver. You killed him, and while you may not like thinking about it, try to realize what it means. We’re going to get Denver now. Maybe not today or even next week, but one of these days Denver is going to wake up a free city, a city that believes in rock and roll. The people of Denver will be able to listen to the music they want to listen to and do whatever they want to do. You did that. You gave them the music. You and your guitar.

That’s why we do it. To save their souls. Lennon died for it. Johnny and Joey killed for it. And now we’re fighting for it. And we can’t stop, and we’re not going to stop, until we get back to New York, until we bring rock and roll to every single person in America. They decided it was worth doing. We’ve got to finish the job.

You stay in bed for now. We can struggle along for a few sets without you. But when you get up, come see me out on the front lines. We’ll jam.

Rock on, kid.