I was invited to participate in a group blogging event hosted by Musicianwages.com, the title of which is “Dear 1999: If you could go back to 1999 and give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?”.  Here’s what I would tell myself, circa 1999:

You gotta start practicing and playing out asap!  You can’t expect to get better when you’re not working on it every day and not playing in front of a crowd.  It’s really not that hard and you have tons of friends who come see you play.  Figure it out!  You’ve got the talent, you’ve got the equipment (and while I’m at, quit buying stuff on credit cards!!!), just get off your a$$ and do it!  Quit making excuses and quit waiting to magically become Jeff Buckley overnight.  Jeff didn’t get as good as he was by pretending and dreaming, he played and played, put everything on the line, and then played some more.  You’re in the perfect position to make it happen, right now!