I was in an auditorium with a lot of people.  I looked to my right and about two people down on the very end of the row was Buddy Rich the greatest drummer there has ever been and few will dispute that.  He was very old and very feeble very tired looking and racked with pain and very hunched over, and this was his posture problem he had most of his life as he was always hunched over his drum set. I never saw Buddy Rich at the end of his life, but I knew he had all kinds of healthcare problems due to his cigarette smoking and his lifestyle of drinking and so I don’t know if that’s what he looked like, but he looked in pretty bad shape.

Well this whole event was to honor him, like a Lifetime Achievement Award, and there was a drum set up there on stage with his signature emblem “BR” on the front of the bass drum head, and when they called him he stepped out onto the Isle. When I looked right at him, I knew who he was even though he was very much older than I remember him, and he just ignored me.  Well that was very typical of Buddy Rich.  He had a super big ego and nobody who worked with him in any of his band’s liked him, they actually hated him because he was very vulgar and very demeaning like a Taskmaster just whipping them, constantly whipping and berating them into the perfection that he had in his mind for “his band.”

He would be even nasty to Johnny Carson on the Johnny Carson show, and he never really was considered a teacher though a few people like Johnny took lessons from him.  He never published any books of his own, but other people published one book from excerpts of his playing.  But he never really taught people or desired to teach people. He was a player and he didn’t even believe in practice, he said.  He was a child prodigy from the age of 2, dragged out on stage in Vaudeville acts by his dad.  So who knows what drove him, but he was a musical genius and he let everybody know it.

Well he stepped out into the aisle and it took him forever to get to the stage and I seriously questioned what he could possibly play on his drum set because his body was barely moving. I think that drum-set was actually just a prop to award him and give him this honor.  Well he got enormous applause and it went on and on and on, and so he received great glory from man.  As I stood back in awe watching this, I heard the Lord say as clear as day, “He has received his reward.”  And I thought about how sad this situation was because he couldn’t even play a drum-set and he was about to die and this is the best he got out of it – a trophy and glory from men, but he got rich throughout his life and much praise for men.

And now it’s all about to end.  It’s already fading away and about about to vanish forever!  And sure enough he died and he wasn’t even that old, and it was all taken away from him – all this glory.  He was on top of the world!  He had a kingdom called “jazz music and Big Band swing,” and everybody idolized him and I became drummer because of him! And it has faded away like the flowers in the field, just as Jesus said the great people’s glory would!  I sat there and felt terrible sadness for him for a long time in the dream and even after the dream.

I’m sure God is showing me all this because he told me couple weeks ago or month ago that “I was not a professional drummer,” even though I’ve played in 37 bands for 52 years, and I pride myself on great performances.  And when he told me this I was devastated for 2 weeks.  Now I understand why he wanted to take that vainglory away, why he wanted to take away that very finite pathway.  It doesn’t go anywhere it suddenly vanishes and it seems like then it is futile.  See “My Story” on the About page for the surprise of what God did tell me that “I am.”

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Spiritual Education, Rhema Word of God, Revelation, Messages from God, Prophecy, Hearing God, Will of God, Dreams, Visions, Buddy Rich Lifetime Achievement Award, Vain glory, Empty rewards, Earthly praise instead of eternal reward