The phenomenon that we know today as Tuba Jim was born, if you want to dignify it with that word, in the backwoods of rural North Carolina. Being from North Carolina carried with it the burden of certain……..shall we say…..complications. Forever tripping over his six toed right foot, growing up for the young Tuba Jim was a constant struggle. A major breakthrough in his development came at the age of 12 when passing a local music store, he said his first words. Pointing at the large hunk of metal in the window, he said “Tuba good,” and thus a legend was born. Puberty, it goes without saying, was more difficult for him than most. Going up to cheerleaders and saying “pretty want dance?” just didn’t seem to cut it. He compensated by developing delusions of adequacy. A two year stay in the far east was ostensibly for his own education, but the fact that his family vanished without a trace during his absence tends to undermine that theory. Having returned to the land of his birth (there’s that word again) he’s vowed to “play much pretty.”