PEORIA MAGAZINE August 2022

P L A Y I N G I N P E O R I A

THE REINVENTION

TOUR A retired journalist fi nds a new calling in his mid-60s

BY KIRK WESSLER PHOTO BY RON JOHNSON

Kirk Wessler plays during open mic at the Red Barn in Peoria

W ewere ina tinydive called The Sand Bar, two blocks from the Atlantic Ocean on Tybee Island, Georgia. Ten or so people filled the stools at the bar. They were drinking and talking when I strummed the opening chord on my acoustic guitar and opened my mouth to sing. “She packed my bags last night, pre-flight, Zero hour, nine a.m …” Talk stopped. Heads and bodies did synchronized 180s toward the make shift stage. The bartender smiled. “And I’m gonna be hi-i-igh as a kite by then …”

Pedestrians on the street slowed and stopped at the open door, arrested by the falsetto on “high.” Women at the bar raised their arms and swayed as they sang along to the chorus. “And I think it’s gonna be a long, long time Till touchdown brings me ‘round again to find I’m not the man they think I am at home Oh, no, no, no. I’m a Rocket Man …” PLANTING A SEED I can’t sing like Elton John, and I don’t know if I’ll ever write lyrics like Bernie Taupin.

But maybe the biggest lesson I’ve learned in the four years of my per sonal “Reinvention Tour” is to refuse to let what I’m not stop me from being what I am. I spent 42 years as a professional newspaper journalist. All but two of those were in sports departments, the last 31 at the Journal Star. It was a wonderful life, filled with bucket-list experiences that I got paid to live. But there is another part of me that relatively few people knew. I started playing guitar when I was 11 years old. It was the mid-1960s, and pretty much every guy I knew wanted either to play pro sports or be The

76 AUGUST 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE