I'm Two Dads Now

The other day, I officially became my father.

It's inevitable, they say. One day you'll become your parents.

Pop culture is usually the killer.

My induction into the Crotchety Old Man Hall of Fame occurred a couple of nights ago.

I was in the kitchen and on the TV in the front room was a video of a performer having a tantrum on stage. I couldn't see the video; I could only hear the audio.

"I'm not Justin Bieber!" the male voice screamed, followed by some bleeped out expletives.

"Who's that?" I called out, because the audio clip was rather shocking.

Our 19-year-old daughter answered with what I thought was "Billy Joel."

Now, knowing Joel's occasional drinking and drug foibles, and his notorious temper, I thought that made sense. Joel's melted down in the past---on stage and off.

"Billy Joel? Really?" I replied, a little knowing chuckle in my voice.

"BILLIE JOE, dad!"

Now I was confuzzled.

"Billy Joe? Who's that?"

I could literally hear her eyes rolling.

"BILLIE JOE, dad! From Green Day."

"I don't know who that is?"

Heavy sigh, followed by, "You've never heard of Green Day?"

"I've heard of them, yes (barely), but I don't know the names of the people in Green Day!"

She groaned. "Oh God, Dad."


Apparently I should know who this is (psst---it's Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day)


That capped a day in which when I got into the car, her radio station was on---95.5 FM.

"All this music sounds the same to me," I told my wife, sincerely. The songs that played all did sound the same to me.

So you combine that comment with the "I thought you said Billy JOEL and who's Billy JOE?" thing, and I have become my dad.

My father didn't appreciate all of my kind of music, either, though we did intersect in our like for certain 1970s recording artists like Three Dog Night and Dave Mason.

That's OK. I loved my dad to pieces, may he rest in peace. I don't really mind becoming him.

Besides, our daughter's lucky that I didn't think she said Green BAY.

Now that's more up my alley.

Oh, and I got her in the end. Referencing Joe's meltdown, in which he demolished his guitar on stage, Nicole wondered aloud if I had ever seen that.

"Yeah---Pete Townshend of The Who used to do that regularly."

She didn't know who that was.