Justin Timberlake is sitting in front of me. We're in one of the coach’s rooms inside of Soldier Field in Chicago - the room has been converted into a “green room" complete with leather arm chairs, refrigerators and decorative plants. It's the middle of the summer, and Chicago summers, while not as intense as their winters, are still brutal.

It was just another day at the office, sitting at my cubicle staring at Microsoft Excel, logging lines of data into a massive spreadsheet. The data however, just so happened to be individual musical compositions, and the office was Universal Music Publishing Group in Santa Monica. At the time, something as unappealing and absolutely not sexy as spreadsheet management, seemed to be the coolest thing in the world, as I worked for one of the biggest record labels in existence.

Jerry Cantrell is coming into the office today! We had received a shipment of close to 20 guitars from Gibson, with the bulk of them being the two signature Epiphone Les Pauls they were about to release. Jerry was going to come and autograph the guitars for a limited run of online sales and sweepstakes.

“Why the fuck are we playing this show?” I yelled from the back seat of a beat up Hyundai SUV. “Who the fuck goes to Hermosa beach?” Driving the car was Pierre, the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the band “Los Trucos” a small rock band formed by two brothers from Mexico. Sitting next to me was James, drummer of the band, and my good friend who I had previously started another band with. After our last lineup failed, we decided to play with Los Trucos as we looked for a singer, and a bassist, for our original progressive rock band, All Systems Know.

I don’t have an addictive personality, but I would say I can become a bit obsessive. The target of 26 year old Max’s latest obsession was a 1980 Gibson 335-S electric guitar in an aged Silverburst finish.