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LBC CenterStage
For The Love of Playing
A Conversation with Lee Godden
by Raquel Ramirez
 
Professional musician, Lee Godden has recorded five albums, published numerous business, sports, and technology articles, is a volunteer for several charities, works as a consulting editor, keynote speaker, and corporate sales trainer. He completed his graduate studies in law and business at Pepperdine University, is an accomplished martial artist, and is now a recognized public speaker generating accolades for his winning Zen based techniques. I'm winded just thinking about it all. Lee took a moment out of his busy schedule to chat with Long Beach Culture about his many achievements and musical career.
LBC: On paper, your early musical career seems to have been quite conservative…you were the youngest guest musician in the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, playing trumpet in the US Navy Band… what inspired you to switch to drums and make the move into good, old fashioned rock and roll?
GODDEN: It was a case of ability versus burning desire. I knew the trumpet but I fell in love with the drums. The trumpet is as good as any musical instrument to teach the fundamentals: reading musical scores, paying attention to the conductor, and blending with the rest of the band or orchestra in terms of tempo and dynamics. I played trumpet in one of the top high school marching bands in the country (St. Andrews Parish High School Marching Band, Charleston, South Carolina), and I when I moved to Spain for my last two years of high school our jazz band traveled from town to town, playing American music for the curious locals. En España, también, aprendí yo cómo hablar español.
In the navy I was stationed in New Jersey, playing trumpet in the marching band in 1977 when I came across Boston's debut album. The drumming of Sib Hashian on "More Than a Feeling" and the other songs was-in my nineteen year-old opinion-almost supernatural. I saw Boston in concert and decided I wanna be like Sib!
By then I was stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. (Shore duty, yeah! Can you say "post-Vietnam party atmosphere?") At a Honolulu pawnshop I bought one drum with each paycheck, slowing building an ugly, multicolored drum set, piece by piece. The only thing uglier than how they looked was how they sounded when I played them. But I guess all drummers suck at first, especially while learning how to separate hands from feet, while keeping the beat, while blending, while trying not to look like a complete idiot. I'd started studying Tae Kwon Do, a form of Korean martial arts, and as I moved up the ranks-belt-wise, I realized the applicability of coordinated arm/leg movement to drumming.
After a year of slow but steady improvement, my enlistment was done and I moved to San Diego (the navy gives you a one-way ticket anywhere). I put ads in all the local papers saying, "Professional drummer seeks band." I took my battered drums-by then covered with wood-grain paper to make them look uniform-to audition after audition. After months of rejections I finally found a gig with a local band. That led to a better, five-nights-a-week gig with another band. My hair kept getting longer and my drumming kept getting better. I was playing OPM (other people's music) for $40 cash a night, but I was happy.
LBC: I understand that Zen is a major influence in your personal and professional life, how does it manifest in your artistic endeavors?
GODDEN: My definition of Zen is simply practical living through the relaxed examination of your inner self. Zen has helped me to more clearly understand myself and what I truly desire and value. I can see beauty in the ordinary, and I feel connected to the people and things around me, because of our similarities and what we share. Most of all, Zen has made me comfortable walking down a middle path in life. Good days and bad days, health and illness, popularity and obscurity, money and poverty-seen in perspective, everything is relative. My motto (which I stole from fellow band mate Bill Grisolia): "Everything in moderation - including moderation."
LBC: In your book, ZenWise Selling: Mindful Methods to Improve Your Sales…and Your Self, you speak of "gaining back greater control of your mind" through meditation. While artists and musician are right-brained, as they say, and analysts and technically inclined people are left-brained, is Zen meditation a way of bridging this gap? Or are you just one of the lucky few?
GODDEN: Zen meditation is a way to calm the mind for just a little while; to quiet your brain's chattering drill sergeant that's always telling you to do this, or to not forget that. A calm mind enables clearer thought to emerge. It refreshes me, refocuses me on what's truly important, and it reenergizes me for the rest of the day.
In San Diego, while I was drumming full-time, I read a book by the late Ken Keyes Jr., The Handbook to Higher Consciousness. It was that book that got me interested in Zen. I began meditating actively and passively at local meditation centers. I studied Hinduism, Taoism and Zen Buddhism. Later, as I was completing my bachelor's degree, I took all of the comparative religion classes that were available.
The first of many challenges that Zen has helped me to overcome was improving my drumming. If I'm not gigging I practice drumming in my home studio at least thirty minutes daily, and to this day I approach the drum set with a beginner's mind. When playing with others my focus is on them, not what I'm doing. Drummers must both lead and blend…tough to do. After learning the mechanics of striking different drums and cymbals with sticks and feet in perfect tempo and dynamics-very left brain-the trick is to defocus from the mechanics and to lose yourself in the song-very right brain. Drumming is the best form of active meditation I know. I've recorded five albums and performed thousands of gigs-every one of which was a challenging, enjoyable lesson in being in the moment.
LBC: How do you ready yourself for a performance? Does Zen meditation play a part in that?
GODDEN: Zen definitely plays a part. I first ask myself why am I playing the gig or doing the recording session. What is my goal? To make money? To help a friend? To become famous? To have fun? Whatever the answer, the next step is to decide if I want to approach that goal in a half-assed manner. Of course I don't. With my direction and attitude set I'll prepare, practice and rehearse. I try to be the best-prepared one in the group, because a drummer can make precious few mistakes.
I'll make handwritten notes about the elements of each song-feel, tempo, dynamics, beginning, ending, verse, chorus, bridge, breaks, drum accents-on paper, using a sort of drummer-coded shorthand I've developed. Then I'll type those notes into a word processor and format it so I can read them clearly while rehearsing.
Just before playing live or in the studio I'll take a few minutes to meditate, usually in a private place. I clear my mind of all thoughts, I smile, I breathe, and when a thought pops up I acknowledge it, let it go, and return to the calmness.
To warm up I'll practice drum rudiments, first tapping my hands on my thighs while tapping my feet on the ground, then using drumsticks lightly on my thighs. My favorite is the gradually-made-faster RLRR-LRLL rudiment.
When I first sit down behind the kit my attitude is one of complete confidence. There is no doubt in my mind about my ability to nail each upcoming tune perfectly. I'll make mistakes, but I try to keep them microscopic and unnoticeable by anyone but me. During the tune I try to remember to smile, to engage the other members, to lock in with the bassist and to have fun. But the sound I produce is the first priority. It has to be. That's a drummer's job.
LBC: What made you switch "from songwriter to salesman?"
GODDEN: In my mid-twenties I grew tired of being the stereotypical starving musician. I was doing what I loved, but I was also hungry. I knew computers from the navy, so I took out a $5,000 loan and enrolled in a "nine month, nine programming languages" course at a San Diego trade school called Coleman College. I played drums at night and studied COBOL, FORTRAN, Assembler, JCL, RPG II, Pascal and PL/I during the day. Two months before graduation my money ran out and I was forced to sell my drums for grocery money. A middle-aged couple and their fifteen year-old son answered my ad, came to my place and drove away with my drums. I cried.
After graduation I cut my hair and applied as an entry-level programmer to dozens of San Diego firms. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. I looked northward and sent a couple of resumes to an aerospace company in Fullerton. Within a few months I was a professional programmer at Hughes Aircraft Company, making $20,000 a year. I missed the drums, but I kind of enjoyed having an apartment of my own, a new car and food in the fridge.
I was promoted rapidly and was soon making thirty and forty grand a year. I got married, started a family, bought a new set of drums and started playing again part time. I went from end-user programmer, to computer network manufacturer pre-sales engineer, to sales rep, to sales manager. By 1993 I was making a hundred grand a year (but I was also divorced, raising my two daughters on my own), and by 1999 it was up to two hundred grand. Throughout all that change I maintained a Zen mind, and kept up the discipline, both in spirituality and in martial arts.
Two years ago I retired from my career as a sales executive, and I launched ZenWise-Telsius LLC here in Signal Hill. My daughters are both adults now, allowing me to more freely focus on educating others, speaking professionally, and marketing my first book.
LBC: One of your bios referred to you as a "former" professional musician, yet I know that you are still performing. Do you look forward to music as a full-time vocation again?
GODDEN: I enjoyed my years as a full-time musician, but I think that part-time is the way to go from here on. Sure, if Toto or Journey or Styx or Fleetwood Mac were to call and say, "Let's hit the road!" I'd jump, but that's not reality. I'm a good drummer, not a great one. I can't compare by abilities to Jeff Porcaro, Simon Philips, Aynsley Dunbar, Steve Smith, Dean Castronovo, John Panozzo, Todd Sucherman or Mick Fleetwood. I know all of their songs like the back of my hand, but so do thousands of other drummers.
LBC: What kind of gigs are you playing these days?
GODDEN: Since I'm no longer a regular member of a recording or touring band, my gigs nowadays are typically with bands who call me-often at the last minute-saying, "Lee! Help! Our drummer just spontaneously combusted and we need you to play with us Saturday night in Hollywood." Three things help with that. First, I know a TON of songs by heart. Second, I can read charts. And third, I can improvise, follow and fake it pretty well.
I sat in with a fantastic band called Room 105 on a Saturday night 9 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. gig a few weeks ago. Their drummer was out of town. The lead singer is a friend of mine, Robin Nivans, who leads this Janis-Joplin-tribute-plus-classic-rock group. I knew most of their cover tunes, but playing live you can't fade out like the record, so they had to visually, on-the-fly cue me with their customized endings on a few songs. The club in Hermosa Beach was packed all night, and we had a blast!
There are also some recording musicians who'll call me to lay down drum tracks in the studio. When I was recording albums with The Attachments I used a click track on about half the tunes, and I relied on personal meter for the rest.
LBC: In the 1991 you and Bill Grisolia formed a Long Beach-based band called The Attachments. Is it true that you guys were voted the number-one popular original rock band? Who voted?
GODDEN: Our fan club was probably responsible for making that happen. At our height we were cranking out an album a year and headlining at all L.A. hotspots-Club Lingerie, The Roxy, The Palomino, At My Place. Here in Long Beach we were regulars at Bogarts, before they demolished the old Marina Pacifica. Our fans would follow us to Southern California gigs in a Greyhound-style bus, complete with beer cooler. There were constant write-ups and reviews in Music Connection and BAM. One of those magazines held a band popularity contest and we came out on top.
Unfortunately, despite having our albums produced by Barry Fasman-the guy behind Styx, Billy Joel and the musical Fame-we never were able to grab the brass ring and secure a contract with a major label. But we sure tried hard. Bill was a master at band publicity and marketing. When an opening band was needed for the L.A. appearance of a major touring act, we often got the call. Opening for big names like Starship and Rick "Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo" Derringer was fun, but the best shared-stage experiences were with slightly lesser-known acts, such as The Beat Farmers, The Red Aunts and Jack Mack and the Heart Attack.
LBC: Do you have favorite musicians to play with?
GODDEN: I enjoy playing with any musician. Synchronizing musical energy with others is one of the most alive, electrifying feelings I know. It's only a drag when egos are bruised and feelings are hurt by leadership, musicianship and doing-your-homework issues. When working in a band, spend sufficient time doing group goal setting and visualization up front. That way everyone's on the same page, striving for the same goal, and all expectations are realistic.
LBC: I have researched your many successes and endeavors, and needless to say, was more than impressed. Do you feel that you are a modern day Renaissance Man?
GODDEN: Leonardo da Vinci is a true Renaissance Man. I can't hold a candle to his talent and accomplishment. I think an example of a true Renaissance Man is a gentleman I met at a recent National Speakers Association meeting. During lunch the hundred or so Los Angeles members were divided into tables of ten each. This man was sitting across from me at our table, eating the standard rubber chicken with the rest of us. We all took turns introducing ourselves, explaining our respective areas of speaking expertise. Then this gentleman finally spoke up. He was mildly mentally handicapped, and this was his first meeting. He took fifteen minutes to explain-in a strained, muffled, stuttering voice-that he wanted to speak professionally to teach others that those with handicaps can make a positive difference. He told us how hard he worked each day to improve his vocabulary to develop his message. Wow! We were all so moved; there wasn't a dry eye at the table. He's overcoming adversity while unselfishly striving to help others. That's a hero. Me? I'm just an average guy fortunate enough to have good health, a vocation I enjoy and supportive friends and family.
LBC: Tell us about your charity work.
GODDEN: When not actively playing music in a band I try to help the community through speaking to groups of young people. I'm a professional member of the National Speakers Association, but the corporate tie comes off when I speak to a roomful of disadvantaged youngsters. My message is: stay in school, decide what's important to you, and don't let occasional failure stop you from reaching your goal.
As a musician I've done a number of high-profile charity gigs. The Attachments have headlined at several large venues such as UCLA's Drake Stadium and Azusa Pacific University in support of causes including the Special Olympics and breast cancer research. When Major Beverly O'Neil needed a band for the opening day celebration of the new Long Beach Police center, the Attachments were there.
Unless you're at the top, performing music doesn't pay that well. So a chance to play for a good cause, or just for the love of playing, is always welcome.
LBC: You are what I like to call "a creator." One who makes things happen by beginning them instead of joining those already in progress. What projects are mid-creation as we speak?
GODDEN: The next book, after ZenWise Selling, is already in the design phase, but I'm not sure where it'll end up. I've been encouraged to call it The ZenWise Entrepreneur, focused on helping people who are-voluntarily or involuntarily-unemployed and trying to start their own small business. But there's so much marketing effort involved in successfully launching a new book and building a related speaking business, that I'm not sure when I'll be able to devote entire days to writing a second book. It took almost a year, full-time, to write ad publish ZenWise Selling. I always worked hard as an employee of corporations, but I've never worked seven days a week, ten hours a day like I am now. However working for yourself makes overtime almost welcome.
My fiancée, Rachel, happens to be the only home-hospice veterinarian in Long Beach. Her compassion for her career is amazing, yet she's often the one who has to say, "Hey, Lee! Let's stop working for awhile and go take a walk, or go catch a movie." I'm so thankful to have Rachel in my life.
My one-year goal is to be able to say those six magic words: "It's good to be back, Oprah."
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View Lee's LBC page and events
Learn more about Raquel Ramirez
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