Jeff Wood….s

I love a good email from a fan. Whether it be from a fan about my old band, The Sound and the Fury, or an email about my current music, it’s nice to hear from people who appreciate what I did or what I do now. However, this story isn’t one of them.

So recently, I woke up to check my email and saw a message from a fan. This particular fan began by thanking me, gushing about a particular show he saw me play in Greenville, Sc.

He was a troubled teen, looking for guidance in life. He confessed to me that when he was 15, he had a tough time in his adolescence and couldn’t function without hurting other people or himself. Then he heard me play and it changed his life.

His email told me that my music and my voice calmed and controlled a fire in him that made his life difficult. He thanked me, ending the email with the “happily ever after” tagline. He’s a grown man now with a wife and children and serves in our military, contributing to this world in a way that he never thought possible before he heard me. The end.

Well, naturally, I read this email and smiled. I was getting ready for a show that day and it lit a fire in me. Who knows whose life I’m gonna change today? If I could have that kind of impact on a person like this from such a long time ago, who’s to say I couldn’t have the same impact on another random person at my show that day.

I got in the shower and couldn’t stop thinking about that email. I told myself, “You know what? This guy just made my day, so I’m gonna make his day too. I’m gonna email him some MP3s of my songs that have never been released. I’m gonna shower him with my greatness in response to him telling me how great I am! I’M SO GREAT!! This is why I play music! So my greatness can shine through!”

Then, out of nowhere, I remembered one word from his email…..Greenville. That one little word in his email didn’t make sense until it did. I got out of the shower and re-read the email. Then I read it again. Then it all the sudden made sense.

This email wasn’t meant for me. It was meant for some other “Jeff Wood”.

What I failed to read while I was basking in my own ego was that I had never been to Greenville. This person met the “Jeff Wood” that changed his life in Greenville, SC. Meanwhile, I have never even been within 500 miles of South Carolina. Then I reread the email a little further and noticed he mentioned that we met at an air force base (I’ve never played a show at an Air Force base) with a bunch of country artist (who I have never played a show with ever).

It seems that my ego was so giddy about the email, praising my ability to change someone’s life that I forgot to read the details about how it wasn’t me at all.

So I emailed him back, told him he had the wrong Jeff Wood and, of course, haven’t heard from him since. What a bummer! I still like to believe that there is room for another Jeff Wood (me) to change his life as well. Maybe my music would have convinced him to join a cult and change the world in a different way.