I grew up in the Seattle Grunge scene, so I mostly listened to Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, AIC, and the like. I was heading home from a friend’s house in Portland on Christmas Eve 1995 when it began snowing. I couldn’t see anything and ended up taking the wrong exit and veering completely off course. Eventually, I got to a tiny backwater town close to the state border. After taking a few minutes to figure out where I was, I remembered that one of my friends from high school lived in this town. I asked around and eventually found his house. He was glad to see me and we began talking about life when he brought up his new favorite album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. He played the thing in its entirety and it blew my mind. At first, songs like Tales Of A Scorched Earth and Zero appealed to me, but now I feel that I prefer songs like Porcelina to those ones. I stayed the night and left for home on Christmas Morning. I remember driving home and hearing 1979 on the radio and thinking, “life is amazing!”. I bought the album as soon as I got home. Thank you for turning my life around Billy!