I went to bed remembering a very poignant moment I shared with Jeff when, as we were having a week of “workation” in the Dominican Republic during a very discouraging low point of our common journey. He started to tell me that I had to sing. “You’ve got a voice, Alex. I need it. So many like me need it.” I was screaming. “I can’t. I can’t. I’m broken inside.” The conversation must have lasted an hour or so, until I cracked and started crying. I was exhausted, burned out, totally hopeless and completely dispirited. He held me in his arms while I was letting go, sharing the true emotional darkness I had lost my way in, right in the middle of a public hot tub filled with other tourists on vacation. I bet they still talk about it to this day. Thank God phones weren’t allowed in that section! It’s been one of the most liberating moments of my life and I think about it almost everyday since then. I bought that Pearl Jam silkscreen poster soon after it: SING OR DIE. Which for me means BE WHO YOU ARE!!!