Do you remember the band Sister Hazel?
Nineties feel-good rockers Sister Hazel?
Let me jog your memory. They have two songs: “All For You” and not All For You.
I was listening to a feel-good rockin’ playlist on Spotify recently and “All For You” came on. But this wasn’t regular “All For You”.
This was a live, all acoustic performance that I’d never heard before. I actually didn’t even realize it was “All For You” because I was on the subway and I had my phone in my pocket and it started with an improvised acoustic guitar solo that, I have to say, absolutely ripped.
The Sister Hazel guitar player - no, I’m not going to look up his name - had his moment to shine and he absolutely took it.
Then they break into the song and there is another guitar solo after the second chorus and, once again, this dude shreds.
I feel guilty now so I look up his name.
(It’s Ryan Newall for those of you keeping score at home)
And the seemingly tens of people who are at this live performance go nuts. And when the singer takes a break from singing the last chorus and, I have to imagine, points the microphone at these tens of people they shout every word just as gleefully as the band itself.
Now, I hope this doesn’t come across as me shitting on Sister Hazel or Ryan Newall. I’m not. In fact, quite the opposite. I was really impressed.
Which led me to thinking about how this was possible. How does someone with this level of talent only end up with one song that anyone knows? And how this is one more song than many, many other ultra-talented people end up having.
And this leads me to thinking about myself. Not so much my guitar playing which is not nearly in the ballpark of Ryan Newall or anyone you would qualify as ultra-talented, but my gym results.
I’ve been training for a long time. I’ve taken it rather seriously. Why do I not look like a carved-out-of-stone Greek statue 24/7 or, more importantly, some of the outliers you see in gyms across America.
You know who I’m talking about. These people squat 520 and have about 4% body fat but spend more setting up their cameras for IG posts or talking to their fellow bros at the juice bar than they actually do lifting.
How are these people doing it?
I have a few potential answers.
The first is that they have really great genetics. This is frustrating because you can’t really control it (you don’t get to choose your parents) and it is almost universally accepted as true. Genetics aren’t the only thing that matters but anyone of any intelligence I’ve heard speak on the matter agrees that genetics play a significant role. Just like it’s a rare person who can qualify to be a center in the NBA because you can’t teach height, some people have muscularity and leanness in their genes.
The next is that they typically have lifestyle factors in place. They are the right age. They have a lifestyle of lower stress. They are getting in a solid amount of calories. They sleep 10 hours per night.
Now, this isn’t always the case for sure. But it’s pretty rare to meet someone who is absolutely jacked and working at a law firm 70 hours per week.
And while these guys don’t necessarily put in the greatest of efforts while they are at the gym (see the juice bar comment above) they also kind of live in the gym. You ever notice that they are in the gym every time you go and, somehow, that one day you get off work and go three hours earlier and they also happen to be there. Yeah, that isn’t a coincidence.
The last thing I’ll bring up is that, particularly these days, more people are drug enhanced than ever. And that is a huge advantage for both performance and aesthetics - particularly if they are taking something sophisticated and respond to it really well (not everyone responds to performance enhancing drugs equally).
The downside of this, of course, can be side effects, health consequences and taking a few years off your lifespan. No biggie.
OK, now for some good news - and hopefully bring this literary mess full circle.
The people that we are describing here are rare and should be truly admired. To continue the guitar analogy they are the Eric Claptons, the John Mayers, the Derek Trucks’, the John Frusciantes (I’m really struggling to come up with living guitarists that are under 40 years old here, but you get the point). They are the absolute outliers. The once-in-a-generation (or at least once-in-a-gym) talents that are seemingly touched by God.
And while that is likely not you, you can more likely become the Ryan Newall of your fitness journey. Really solid and truly impressive to the tens of others in your audience who are nowhere near your level of capabilities. You can get the attention of other people on the subway who will say to themselves - as I did when I heard that Sister Hazel track - I don’t know who that person is, but damn, they are in pretty solid shape.
And you can do this without all the rock-and-roll trappings of drug use and obsession and dying by choking on your own vomit (okay, perhaps I have taken the analogy too far).
And aren’t those the results you’re actually looking for anyway?
You know how, in live recordings, they don’t always know when to end the track so you start to hear the banter that leads into the next song?
Well, that happened on the Sister Hazel song. As the raucous applause of the tens of people dies down at the end of “All For You” the singer announces that they are going to launch into the next song.
And I find myself slack-jawed as I think of them having additional songs.
And as about four out of the tens of people give a quick hoot at the mention of this song something surprising happens.
Just as the track cuts off I kind of find myself wishing I’d heard the intro.