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Whatever happened to . . . the teen musician focused on growth

By Michael Kruse, Times Staff Writer
In print: Sunday, March 16, 2008

John Gold

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"Age of Awareness"; Aug. 16, 2007;

see past coverage at life.tampabay.com.

THE STORY: It was late in the last summer of his childhood and John Gold was searching. He was 17, about to be a senior at Land O'Lakes High, about to put out his first CD, and he was wondering, wandering, trying to figure things out within the maze of the winding streets and the strip centers and the strange open spaces of central Pasco County.

"You know what I really like?" he said at one point. "Gigantic fields with just one tree in the middle. You know what I mean?"

FROM THE STORY: John saw a green grass path away from the flat black pavement and behind a gate off to the side of the theater. Something different. Anything to change his perspective. He walked down the path with Devin and the two girls.

It led nowhere.

They stood there for a moment. The air was heavy and wet. There was heat lightning in the sky. Bugs and frogs buzzed in the reeds. Then they turned around and walked back to the pavement.

John tried again.

He got up on the wood railing by the curb and balanced on it and walked like that. He reached out to Rebecca and Rebecca reached up to him. Rebecca held John's hand as he walked on the rail.

"Don't fall," she said.

THE REST OF THE STORY: His CD, Cryptiquotes, an 11-track debut, came out in the fall. Since then, his hair has gotten longer, his voice a little deeper, and at school he was voted most talented in senior superlatives and onto the homecoming court.

John turned 18 in January and had a party with harmonicas and tambourines and Diet Dr Pepper and Very Fine Fruit Punch and about 20 friends. They gave him hugs and cupcakes.

For his birthday, at his house, on that night, they made music.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT: He graduates from Land O'Lakes in May. He wants to go to International Academy of Design and Technology in Tampa to study recording arts, or a record deal would work, too.

"I think I have a good message," he said.

Two of them, really, he said.

First: "You are beautiful."

Second: "Wonderful should be spelled with two L's. One L is not enough. It needs to be full of wonder."

For now, he's working on his second CD, and hopes to have it done by summer.

"I feel like I have to compete with myself," he said. He stopped to think about that. "It's really hard."

John Gold is growing up.

Michael Kruse, Times staff writer