It was Christmastime and I was busking in a bar about 2007. [That’s when you play for food, drinks and tips, sans salary.] I’ve done that a lot. Its amazing how it works out.
Anyways, I’m singing in this pub and among the small crowd was this big burley guy sitting at the bar. I was using the bar stool next to him so we exchanged words a few times. I played one of my Christmas songs and this guy starts crying. Now I’ve made a quite few people cry with my singing; for reasons not all good I suppose; LOL. But when a full-grown man just starts crying that creeps me out. Its even a bit eerie. Course I was kinda stuck there and he kept on crying. So finally I said “Hey what’s going on man?”
Please enjoy my album Everything for Christmas. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLP83JGcsk2A_nSMsAQJ9yekT5LgUtqPBu and consider a donation to me and my charity https://www.gofundme.com/f/c7duh-the-kids-on-the-bridge at the Paypal button to the left. Thanks!
He says “I lost a lot of friends.”
I said “Yeah sucks when you lose a friend.”
He says “Seventeen last couple years.”
“How is that?” I asked.
“On the job. They worked for me.” He stopped crying.
“Really! What do you do for chrissake?”
“I neutralize threats.”
“Never heard of that job before. You neutralize threats. What threats?”
“Terrorists in Iraq.”
“Oh you’re a soldier.”
“Nope! I was a long time ago. I’m a private security contractor. My company protects oil convoys, that kinda thing.”
“You mean roadside bombs, suicide bombers.”
“Yeah, snipers and ambushes. We lose a lot of people. Lot of guys get hurt bad.”
“Why do you do that?”
“We do it for the money’s. It’s huge. Really huge. I bought a house here in Thailand on a month’s pay. Most of the guys are soldiers, young, single, did their time, left the military and they were already in Bagdad, looking to make some money and trained for the job. There’s a lot of other benefits. I get free transport to Thailand and a lot of time off. I come here 5 or 6 times a year for two weeks or more. Got a Thai wife. I’ve brought a dozen or more friends over. A lot of us live here.”
“Hey! I like the Christmas song. You got that on CD?”
“Yeah I do. I actually have some with me.”
“Cool. I wanna buy one. How much?”
“500 Baht [$15].” He gives me 1,000.
“You got any other CDs?”
“Yeah I’ve got seven albums. But they’re back at my place.”
“Go get ‘em! I’ll buy ‘em all!”
I did and he did.
Merry Christmas!
