One of my earliest musician memories is dancing around my parents’ basement, holding a matchbox race track as my guitar, while Billy Joel’s Glass Houses album rocked the speakers. My favorite song on that album was and still is “Close to the Borderline”, which is one of the heaviest songs in his catalog. When I was 8 years old, I purchased Quiet Riot’s Metal Health on cassette. I would sit and listen to the title song entranced by the sound. By 6th grade, I was listening to all the 80’s hair bands like Motley Crüe, Bon Jovi, Cinderella and Stryper. In 7th grade I was moving on to Iron Maiden and Helloween. By 8th grade I was listening to Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, and Slayer. I saw Metallica in concert on the ….And Justice for All tour during that same year. My parents were pretty cool to take my friend and I to that show.

Bread is a symbol of the means to be able to support your family. Literally to put food on the table, but also to make sure your children are clothed, they can attend school, your home is heated, and that the basic necessities of living are taken care of. This is one of the rationales for why we work, to earn a living to support our families. But this slogan isn’t just demanding bread, it demands roses too.