1954

Nowadays joining the scouts as a boy has become very outdated. When I was ten it still was a great way to get away from home over the weekends and during the school holidays. I loved hiking and camping and sitting with my peers around the campfire until late at night. We played adventure games in the woods, long before they became a pastime at the computer. The rain was pounding on the tent-roof when I tried my luck on a friend's guitar. At Christmas 1954 I got my own six string. From then on hardly a day went by without my practicing until my fingers bled. After I had learned to accompany some songs, I found it more interesting to invent new ones. That's how I became a songwriter. It's all the fault of my boy scout weekends and the bad weather in the summer of 1954.