March of 1993. I had seen/heard STP on MTV, but didn't know who they were. This story has
a lesson to those who read it. Never date your friend's sister.
Although I must admit, I was the one who screwed the relationship up. The whole thing was
doomed from the start. She was in college - I was in high-school. She was the older hot girl
who knew good music, I was playing "Black Sheep" and "Run DMC" at a local radio station.
Finding good rock music wasn't on my radar. But when getting into this girl's vehicle, she
popped in a cassette. I was immediately caught by the album cover (which was Core).
I still remember her fast-forwarding the tape to "her favorite song called Plush". Not really
paying too much attention to the music, I talked with her as we rode into town.
In the background, I remember hearing the song. Too busy with trying make conversation,
I didn't pay that much attention to the song. Yet I remember that I did have a thought or
two about how different the song sounded. The guitar melody stuck in my head after I went
home. I do remember me asking her who the band was. She told me it was this group called
"The Stone Temple Pilots".
I heard "Trippin" a few years later while working at a radio station. I realized STP was the band
I heard in that girls van a few years earlier. Remembering the song "Plush" and how unique I thought
it was, I was floored when I heard "Trippin". The lyrics, the guitar solo, the driving drums? All of it was
cool. "Trippin" was on a compilation CD for the month of May - 1996. I dubbed it onto a cassette with other songs from Smashing Pumpkins, Stabbing Westward, Goo Goo Dolls and some other bands. I took it up north to a summer camp where I worked as a counselor. I played it in my cabin all the time. The week I discovered the song, I was in charge of the 7 and 8 year-old boys. They listened to it over and over with me. By the end of the week, I could hear them singing "I'm not dead and I'm not for sale" as they sat around the camp-fire. Those kids would be 23 or 24 years old now. I still wonder if any of those kids became STP fans. They heard that song so many damn times that week. It makes me laugh out loud thinking about it.
As for the girl I dated? We broke-up that spring. Long-distance relationships don't work. And the way we broke-up wasn't good either. When you wrong your friend's sister, you wrong your friend. Her brother and I never really trusted each other much after that. Eventually, we stopped hanging out. This girl and her brother (my friend) both went to the same college that I eventually attended. I made amends with her at a party my freshman year.
As for not dating your friend's sister, I could also recommend not letting your friend have access to YOUR sister. Yup. The girl I dated? Her brother? My friend? Yes. He hooked-up with my sister when she came to visit me for siblings weekend. And I use the word "hook-up" in an understated manner.
Karma is a bitch.
-Brandon
