I Bumped My Head, Couldn’t Go To Bed, But Could Play Piano In The Morning

When I was 40 years old something happened that changed everything. I went to visit my mother October 27th, 2006. I had gotten together with a few guys I went to high school with. We were all throwing the football around in the swimming pool of course, because that’s what boys do. I decided to dive in after the football, and I hit the very bottom of the pool headfirst.

I’ve always been an athlete, so I thought I could dive in and not bounce off anything. I think I was watching the football a little too closely. I didn’t see the “No Shallow Diving” sign, so that was that. It all happened pretty quick.

I wasn’t knocked unconscious immediately. I remember hitting my head and coming up out of the water. Then I basically collapsed and was taken to the hospital. I don’t really remember much after collapsing.

Right at the time of my injury they knew something was seriously wrong. I had some brain swelling and was basically diagnosed with a massive concussion. I lost some memory and about 35 per cent of my hearing.

I recovered about four days afterwards. I felt healthy, my body felt physically fine. That fourth day after the accident I went over to my best friend’s house, who is a musician and who was there the day of the accident. He has a little home studio, and he was recording when I went over to visit him.

For some unknown reason I sat down at his piano and started to play. There was no progression; it’s not like I started playing Mary Had A Little Lamb. I just started to play classically structured music - full compositions, if you will.