Jai Bhakti™ (Bhakti Brophy): December 2008

CLICK ON LINK ABOVE TO BUY JASON BECKER'S
NEW ALBUM: 'COLLECTION'. YOUR EARS WILL
THANK YOU!

As many of you know, I have been a great fan of guitar virtuoso Steve Vai for over twenty years. You also know that I had the great pleasure of meeting him last year. What you may not know is that when I told Steve about how my physical limitations have made it virtually impossible for me to play the guitar, drums, etc., he told me about Jason Becker's spiritual triumph over his physical limitations. Steve introduced me to the life of a man who would become my inspiration to keep making music, even if that meant writing a piece of music one month, programming the drum track another month, recording the drum track to my 8-track digital recorder another month; you get the picture. I was used to writing a tune in one day and recording all of the instruments myself until the piece was finished, most times working through the entire day and staying up all night. It never occurred to me that I could enjoy recording my music any other way, but after reading about Jason's story and watching videos illustrating his unique music writing style on YouTube, I have learned to discipline myself. I am recording again, albeit slowly but surely, and Jason is my hero.

Jason Becker is a TRUE guitar hero. He has been living with ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) for almost twenty years. In a nutshell, he went from being a famous guitar prodigy in the late '80s, to a man not able to breathe by himself. He never lost his spirit or desire to live. I don't think I would be remiss to say that our physical 'dis-eases' have brought both of us closer to the Truth than we could have ever imaged. Perhaps I have that backwards: maybe it was our innate knowledge of the Truth from a very young age--our thirst to find that Truth--that has sustained us both.

An artist MUST create. Jason is a true artist. I could go on and on and write about what I know of Jason's life, but I would ask that you go to the source. PLEASE WATCH THIS TRIBUTE TO JASON BECKER'S LIFE. Your life will be changed for the better after you watch this video. There is nothing greater than being in the presence of greatness: Jason is the personification of how great the human spirit truly is.