Man, I'm always hearing stories about how some cat gets his chops jacked up and then played better. With me it just messes me up. Dig this one....

During the 90s I was playing lead on one of those big church Christmas shows...tough blow. After one show some idiot ran into the back of my head while I was playing and it just crushed my chops, hurt like hell. By the time I got home my upper lip looked like a small balloon. I iced it down, and had to play four more shows over the next two days. It hurt so bad to play, that before each show I would have to warm up until it was totally numb, just so I could get through the show. As soon as the Christmas season was over I took two weeks off the horn to see if it would heal itself...it did but only about 50%. It took a year until things felt right again.

Yeah...you never know when its gonna happen.

Ray