The Story Behind The Song: Plastic Guns

Download the song Plastic Guns, along with three other songs for free here

The story begins with a little boy sitting on the lawn wearing a cowboy costume. With an alcoholic father who died before he was five years old, that western ensemble was the only semblance he had of a real childhood. He spent his evenings immersed in the world of Roy Rogers and Howdy Doody. That little boy is my dad.

He set out on his own at sixteen years old to pursue a music career that landed him in the company of the Beach Boys, and garnered him a number one single called "Little Honda" with the surf group, The Hondells. His quick success in rock and roll ushered him into a life of sex, drugs and alcohol. Truth and love were not offered to him throughout his boyhood, so his life became about searching for those things wherever he could find them. In his early twenties, his spiritual quest became steadfast as hippies emerged and their common openness and desires united them. Eastern religion, traditional church and hallucinatory narcotics left him empty-handed of heart, and the search continued. With an open mind, he and some of his hippie friends decided to visit a little church in Southern California just to see if God could be found there. From the moment they walked in the door, they understood that He could.

My mom was raised in the Mojave desert, and spent most of her time outdoors. With a vast desert landscape for a backyard, she hung out with the Rackley boys, a rough and tumble group of brothers who loved to throw rocks. She never backed down from a dare, and her spunk and moxy has followed her through every stage of life. She went to college in Southern California, and went with some friends to a beach baptism offered by Calvary Chapel. A group called "Love Song" was playing, and my mom was introduced to the lead singer, who happened to be my dad.

I like to think of it as love at first sight, and I see my parents locking eyes from afar, and being magnetically drawn to each other like that scene from Twilight when Edward first walks into the school cafeteria in slow motion. In reality, the first time they met was not at the beach, but at an evening church service about a week before. One of my mom's friends was interested in my dad, and wanted to meet him. My mom and another friend went with her for moral support, and my dad ended up being interested in the the other friend. My mom was very brave to show her face that night, because she was not only horrifically sunburned, but had an allergic reaction to the herring that she ate earlier in the day. She showed up to church with a beet red face and lips swollen to three times their normal size. I can't really blame my dad for not noticing her. Well, I'm sure he noticed her, but not for the reasons that would play out in a good romantic movie. Nothing came of anything that night, and then they met a week later at the beach. After they were re-introduced, and my mom's swelling had gone down, they were inseparable from that moment on.

In the song, they meet at the beach, because "herring", "sunburn" and "swollen face" don't really roll off the tongue in a musically desirable way. I don't feel like this is very important, because this is a love song. It's the story of their lifelong love and commitment to each other. There were times in their marriage that I honestly thought they'd be better off without each other. There were other times I thought they would die without each other. At certain times, as with any marriage that lasts longer than a few years, no one would have faulted them for giving up. But they didn't give up. They have remained undyingly dedicated to each other through great hardship, good times and bad. They make me believe in love.

It's fun watching them now in their sixties. I love the way my mom still smiles at him with a wordless squeal when he makes her dinner. I love the way she playfully rolls her eyes at the sheer joy he experiences when he finds the perfect pair of black sweatpants, knowing full well that she would have suffocated with a suit and tie man. The fireside dance that I mention in the bridge of the song didn't actually happen the day they met. I put that line in there because I think that dance is how I see them now. Theirs is a story wrought with passion, difficulty and trial, and it's a story that has left a rich legacy for their children and grandchildren. It's a story that begs to be told. And so it has.