katzinjamma - the STORY of the Nickname

the story of the nickname

So the story goes like this …

I had alot of success as a youngster in music as you have read already. My love for music never left even though I was going to trade school to learn how to do what i do today .. advertising. I was so into collecting albums of my favorite bands from old school Styx, Boston, Kansas, Billy Joel, The Cars, Rush to the Glam bands of Poison, Motley Crue, Dokken, Ratt and the Heavy ones like Iron maiden, Judas Priest and then harder stuff like Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax and Megadeath. But after i graduated trade school and high school I moved to queens to stay with my beloved grandmother .. I went to college and was freelancing at advertising firms and then I got the gig at Pennysaver (Nassau / Queens Publications) working the 6pm to 6am shift as the Jr Art Director. There i met a transport guy named Chris who had a christian band and we started chatting … The itch for music got overwhelming and he said he would teach me some chords if i had a guitar.

Well …. I asked my grandmother what she thought if i got a guitar .. needless to say she was not having it, not her thing and not in her house. I was 18 and I BOUGHT ONE ANYWAYS. I didn't tell her, hid it under my bed as well as a small practice amp. Chris showed me “talk dirty to me” from Poison easy power chords just to get started and i practiced every night unplugged and plugged in when grams went to work. Well, once i got a little better and learned the basic, E, A C, G and D chords I told my grandmother that I bought a guitar. She double backed and then said “well if your going to play it just keep it down, not to disturb the neighbors.”

ALL I HEARD WAS .. green light, she aint mad, so here we go.

One day while I had on off day she sat and watched TV, her favorite show “ Days of our lives” and I had the stereo going and “am i evil” metallica version and playing along. I had it down good.

boom boom boom .. she banged on the wall, “turn it down” she yelled.

yeah yeah ok grandma, so i turned it down from 11 to 10 .. remember spinal tap, it was like that.

I proceeded to play on… boom boom boom “turn it down I said” she yelled again “OK grams” i replied and from 10 to 9 I went turning down the volume.

Now we lived in a one bedroom apartment, which she let me have and the apartment management painted every three years, but never scraped the paint off the top of the doors so my door never really closed it was just wedged closed to about a crack. The door knobs were there just to yank open, as you stuck the door almost closed. Behind the bedroom door, which opened inwards, was a clothes cabinet behind the door, 5 foot tall and was made of metel of some sort, kind of like a gym locker but not like steel more like aluminum.

I continued playing, lost in the slow, heavy sound of the down picking AND THEN …

Kaboooom CRASH as the bedroom door SMASHES into the clothes metal cabinet ..

it was SO LOUD .. louder than what i was doing and then my grandmother, 5'4"s of pure german RAGE, i tell you RRRRAGE !!! broke into the room.

I freaked out, turned off everything and she scolded me ..

"TURN that KATZINJAMMA S#!% OFFFFFF ….thats it! … Im not having it anymore! … thats all I hear! …thats what im calling you .. katzinjamma" with an angry face she looks at me …

and i shook it off with confusion and said ..

“wait a minute.. what did you call me?” … she replied “katzinjamma” “thats all i hear in here, thats what you are” ….

i replied “what does that even mean … tell me what that means!”

NOW she realizes she has to explain what this name she's calling me means, the rage from her face dissipated and then the smirk, the dropped shoulders and a sigh she says ..

“katzinjamma” “cats in heat making a HORRIBLE noise thats all i hear in here.”

I said "thats AN AWESOME nickname grandma .. how do you spell it and she spelled it

k a t z i n j a m m a

she uttered . and thats what im calling you and we then started to giggle ..

my grandmother wasn't into music really, she liked the jingle of 1010 wins “give us 10 minutes we'll give you the world” anyone from NY back then can now hear the jingle. BUT needless to say she went to many of the shows of the katzinjamma band I put together, the battle of the band gigs to the headliner club scene of the “gunn Club” she asked “do you have my earplugs” … my reply “yes grams I got em for you.” and she was there.

she never praised it, shed says not my cup of tea ..

It was about several months or so before she died she heard my first solo song “breakfree”

we were coming back from a dr visit sitting in my truck i said “hey grams, can I play you something and tell me what you think” she sat there with me and actually listened intently and as the song finished I asked "what did you think of my new song"

she replied “what part did you do” I said "well grams i had recorded it at Anthony Vivineto's studio and I did all the parts, the singing, the guitars, bass i even did the drum tracks and put it all together myself."

she replied “that was impressive”

https://katzinjamma.com/track/2862712/breakfree