Painting a Picture

In the late spring of 2010 we were spending 5 nights a week out at our little practice home Ringo Manor. We were writing new songs for our first full length record. It was on one of these cool and particularly beautiful spring nights that we began working on a piece of music that John had been playing during warm ups every night for quite a while. He’d always run through this particular chord progression as he was working on his sounds. It was beautiful and always had a very lasting effect on me. I’d go home and hum along to that melody for hours and sometimes days after hearing John run through it for all of 30 seconds.

My day job is working for our public school system and as part of that job I drive a school bus. Every morning in 2010 there was a little girl I picked up who was just a mess. I would pull up to her house, honk and wait every day. She’d coming running out with only 1 shoe on and her hair flying all around. Lots of mornings she’d fall and get her knees muddy, or drop her books…it was always something but through it all she never quit smiling. I enjoyed picking her up because she brought a smile to my face and reminded me of my own little girl.

My little girl was a mess too. She liked to play in the dirt, ride her bike and climb trees. She loved to cook and was always coming up with a crazy concoction in the kitchen. She talked too, too much in elementary school, went through the drama of middle school, dated in high school and eventually went away to the US Air Force where she chose the very UN lady like job of dismantling bombs. Not long after that she called and told me…”dad I’m getting married.” She grew up in the blink of an eye…where did the time go…?


It didn’t take long for me to paint a picture with that beautiful music Johnny provided. I just had to open my eyes and see it all around me. My little girl, my little bus rider and so on. Being a father to a little girl is a unique job. You worry, you feel helpless A LOT and sometimes you can only send them to their mother…because some things daddy can’t fix. But you’re always waiting with a hug and you die a little each year as they grow up. The time flies by and before you know it…she’s gone. Still, no matter how old she gets…you still see your little girl…always.

So as our first single hits radio nationally…here’s to every Little Miss Rough and Tumble both young and old…and their daddies who die a little each day.