Truly Julie shredding “Start Me Up” at her rock concert debut.
People often ask me, “What is your favorite story that you’ve done?” To me, this is like asking a mom to pick her favorite child. I try to throw 100% of me into every story I do; and in the process, I fall in love with all of them. But there is one story that particularly stands out from this year: my rock concert debut! School of Rock is an awesome, rad, bad-a%$ after school music program that teaches kids how to jam. Let me just say that if School of Rock existed when I was a kid, I might’ve had a whole different career path. For a story for Good Day New York, I enrolled in the program for 6 weeks with the goal of getting good enough to rock with the School of Rock’s Montclair House Band in NJ at their benefit concert (helping Big Brothers & Big Sisters Essex County). Mission accomplished! Click here to see me go from rocky to rockin’. After six 45-minute drumming lessons and two guitar lessons, I fulfilled my life-long dream of being a rock star. 
Come on, I know everyone has an inner rock star dream. With sticks, I pounded “Back in Black” by AC/DC. With strings, I shredded “Start Me Up” by The Rolling Stones. All this while sporting a geriatric boot! I had minor foot surgery during this whole process, hence the cane and no heels! Gasp.
I attribute my fast track skills to Julliard trained musical genius, Michael Thurber. 
Michael is a teacher at the School of Rock, but he’s so much more. He’s one of the most gifted bass players, and I believe the only student to ever be accepted to both the jazz and classical programs at Julliard.He can learn any song by ear and rocks a minimum of 5 instruments. But it’s Michael’s heart that amazes me the most. His love of music, enthusiasm for life, and wisdom beyond his years…inspired me to no end. I truly believe this story will be so memorable for me for years to come because it opened up my eyes and ears to what I was capable of and also brought me a remarkable, jovial friend. 
I hope to continue my guitar lessons (cause lets be real, a drum set will not fit in my apt)! Click here to see me jammin’ at lesson 2.
