Yesterday the op-ed written by retired music store owner J. Michael Diehl went around the internets as Diehl explained how back in 1989, as a small business owner in Freehold, New Jersey, he was completely screwed by Donald Trump and Donald Trump’s terrible business ethics. Today, with this tweet, we now know that Donald Trump is so karmically shitty as to have actually screwed over a guy that gave a young Bruce Springsteen his first rented guitar.
The passage Romano is talking about from Springsteen’s new autobiography goes like so:
I convinced my mom to take me to Diehl’s Music on South Street in Freehold. There, with no money to spend, we rented a guitar. I took it home. Opened its case. Smelled its wood (still one of the sweetest and most promising smells in the world), felt its magic, sensed its hidden power. I held it in my arms, ran my fingers over its strings, held the real tortoiseshell guitar pick in between my teeth, tasted it, took a few weeks of music lessons… and quit. It was TOO F#$%IN’ HARD! Mike Diehl, guitarist and owner of Diehl’s Music, didn’t have any idea how to teach whatever Elvis was doing to a young shouter who wanted to sing the elementary school blues…
The sunny morning I had to return the guitar, I stood in front of six or so of the neighborhood guys and gals in my backyard. I gave my first and last show for quite a while: I held the guitar...I shook it...I shouted at it...I banged on it...I sang voodoo nonsense...I did everything but play it… all to their laughter and great amusement. I sucked. It was a joyful and silly-assed pantomime. That afternoon, sad but a little relieved. I dropped the guitar off back at Diehl’s Music. It was over for now, but for a moment, just a moment, in front of those kids in my backyard...I smelled blood.
Luckily for Bruce and for the rest of the world, small business owners like Mr. Diehl were around, making honest livings working in their communities and actually providing services to people.