Kate Quarfordt (KQ): And it was a school night. And yea I remember going —
Kevin Craw (KC): [laughs]
KQ: and drinking my Shirley Temple feeling very awkward. But I remember you got excited and asked if I could step in and sing with the band. You hadn’t asked me first! You just came back and said “Oh it’s cool, you can do a number with the band”.
KC: I thought, “Well hell! My daughter can do it because my daughter can do anything.”
KQ: And I just remember being, like flooded with panic. And I checked with the band and I said, “do y’all know Little Wing” and of course they said “sure”. And I get up there and the band starts playing and it’s way in a super low key. The rhythm is different from what I know and I’m not even on beat. I’m realizing like, okay the train is off the track and yet I’m going to just keep singing until the song ends.
KC: Yeah.
KQ: The only thing to do is just hold on and not die.
KC: It came off much better than you remember. I don’t recall ever as a, putting you under the gun, for which I apologize profusely —
KQ: No no no no no. I mean looking back there have been other moments of not being in control, not knowing where I was going, not knowing how it was going to end. And kind of being able to go back to that moment of like, “yeah, sometimes it doesn’t feel so good”, and you just kind of keep stepping.
KC: I think it’s never a harm to try —
KQ: Just taking a shot. Yeah.
KC: Taking a swing.
KQ: I do think that there were things that I watched you do that gave me a sense that I could do it. And I think a lot about, um, remember The Triumph?
KC: Yeah.
KQ: This rusted out body of the car. There wasn’t anything else in there. And I remember at one point going out to the garage and seeing you through the window. And there was just like a pile of like [laughs] multicolored electrical junk. And you were just sort of sitting there like, rocking, just looking at it, you know?
KC: Yeah.
KQ: Like what is he doing? [laughs]. And then asking you, and just the answer was so stunning to me. Just like I’m going to sit here and I’m going to stare at this pile until it tells me what to do next. And so that sense of like, only being able to see just enough in front of your nose to just know what the next step is. So it was interesting to me as sort of a — not quite a kid, not yet a grown up, to kind of recognize that in you.
KC: The desire to protect the ones you love is never ending and that keeps me up at night. You’re so invested in them and you so want them to thrive and you can’t make it happen, they have to make it happen for themselves. If you make it happen for them it won’t be worth a damn.
KQ: Mmhmm.
KC: So you simply say, “I guess I’m doing my best. I’m not sure.”
KQ: Yeah.
KC: But if your heart is pure and your goal is right, you can’t go wrong.
