Idol Times.

Over the span of my life so far I've looked up to many different faces for inspiration, strength, guidance, hope, and countless other things.
When I was younger, before my musical endeavors as Backseat Goodbye, hockey was my thing.
I was an aspiring goaltender, and looked up to such National Hockey League greats as Patrick Roy, Martin Broudeur, and Mike Richter.

Now, I find myself in a new world as a 22 year-old kid that's completely in love with a girl named music.
I look up to many more humans for inspiration now, which consist of an amazing variety of musicians,...
to name a few: Bright Eyes, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jack Johnson, Frank Sinatra, The Mountain Goats, Cat Power, Tilly & The Wall, The Format, and John Mayer.

From a number of those bands/artists, I've became amazed by a select few that make up those groups.
Take Conor Oberst, for example... the ringleader of my favorite band, Bright Eyes.
The man has accomplished so much, and he's done so in a completely independent perspective.
What he's done as a whole is something I've always been in awe of.
Yesterday I was reading an interview on Blender.com that was done with Conor last week.
My eyebrows were raised to the fact that Conor was 22 when he released the album that basically broke him into the Indie mainstream, "Lifted".

After reading that I got even more excited about the point I'm at in my life right now.
Sure, I've been living quite comfortably from my music over the last two years,...
but I'm at a point where things are happening in much larger scales, much quicker.
Though no one really knows about all that's about to happen with my Backseat Goodbye, other than a handful of people,...
there are some literally HUGE things that are going to occur.

I've always been blown away by the fact that I've become able to do what I love for a living,
but there are things happening as of late that really just blow my mind.
It's going to be an exciting rest of 2008...
and I can't even begin to fathom what 2009 is going to hold.

ANYWAYS....
that's not the point of this post,...
so back to where I was originally going with all of this.

I'm a frequent reader of John Mayer's blog.
The guy has always been interesting to me, not only as a musician,
but as a normal dude.
I've been a huge fan of his for years now,
but today I realized I look up to him even more-so than I thought.
I mean, he's a nice guy, doing what he loves, and helping the world along the way.

I get asked a certain question a lot in interviews,
it usually goes something like, "Who are your favorite artists? And what people inspire you as an artist?"
To me, that's a very personal and big question.
I could chime on for hours about how certain songs and artists have completely changed my life with one lyric.
But in interviews you're expected to give a truthful, yet somewhat concise answer.
And that's completely cool with me.
Anyways,...
I usually always just throw one name in there as far as single people I look to for inspiration,...
and that's Conor Oberst.
But I decided today, that John Mayer is now a second name for that list.

I can only hope that one day I'll be able to do things as level-headed and awesome as him on the same large scale.

It may be seen as childish to still have idols at my age,
but if you were to ask me, I would say it's childish NOT to have idols at any given point in your entire life.

- Chad