Chapter 27: Pay Me Back!
Jamie cleared his throat before starting.
"You know a little bit about my family."
"Country to the bone. Your grandfather invented a new country guitar and bass strumming method, and your family has been Grammy-nominated for three generations now. Your dad and brothers are famous in the country community. I know the gist." Ari quickly summarized everything he had learned.
"You looked us up?" Jamie's blue eyes were wide open in surprise.
"You gave me your first and last name and told me you were the third in the family. It took about 5 seconds to pull it up."
"Cough-Stalker." Jamie pretended to cough in his hand with a sly look.
"So what I'm hearing is that you want more ice down your shirt? Say less." As Ari sat up threateningly, Jamie rolled his chair away in a panic.
"Ahem...anyways, my whole family is into country music. My older brothers, my uncles, my dad, my grandfather, and my cousins. Basically, if you're a man, you got a guitar when you were two and learned to love country music, which is hailed as the end-all be-all of music in my family. You could say they're country elitists. They think country music is the only real music. I also thought that way for a while since I started composing early."
"But not anymore?"
"....no, not really. Ah, don't get me wrong, I still love it, but I want to expand my composing to all these different genres that I've learned to love and enjoy. Because a story or message can be passed on through song, even if it's not in the form of country music. And I want to be the one on stage, performing not just country music, but different types of music to people worldwide. I want to bring my music to them, but also learn their music as well."
"Sounds like a solid dream to me."