My name is Kuba and I’m from Poland. If you’re reading this, it means you must have seen our cover of “Seven Years Gone” by Richie Sambora. For me it’s far more than just a cover as the song is far more than just a song. That rendition is the final chapter of the 7 year old story of my life. I dreamed to have our version recorded someday and finally, just a week after my 40th birthday, it’s done. If you’re curious why it was so important for me, I invite you to read this.
First of all, I’ve been a die-hard of Bon Jovi since 1992, when KTF single album came out. I was 12 back then and it was love at first sight. What I loved the most was the guitars in it. Richie was the key member from the beginning. That was the start of a lifelong journey with the King of Swing. I waited till 2008 to see the band live for the first time and 2012 to see Richie solo live. All in all, I’ve seen 7 BJ shows (6 abroad, 1 home) and 3 Richie solo shows (all in Germany). My last BJ shows with Richie were in Dublin 2011. I flied there all the way from Poland for one reason only. Hopefully to see & hear “Dry County” for the first time live, most importantly Richie’s solo. My dearest song from the start (along with KTF). Miraculously, it came true. I’ve seen it on night 1, and it was the most emotional moment of my fan live ever (more on that click HERE). Nobody could have foreseen these were my last 2 shows with the band I fell in love with, in full squad. When Richie left in 2013, it was the turning point not only in his life. It was the most important year of my life too. “I can’t recall believing that I’d make it here alive” – is exactly what I can say today too. I don’t think I was prepared for it, but as those 7 years are gone now, I can finally say what was going on all this time.
When Richie left, the band already had a tour scheduled for Europe, including the first ever BJ show in Poland, moreover in my hometown of Gdansk. I was waiting for it all my life and when it came true, the most important member for me was gone for good. At the same time my wife was pregnant with our second baby, daughter Alice, who as it later turned out was born exactly on the day of the scheduled concert. Unbelievable. The happiness was immense, but only for a couple of minutes. It turned out she was born with Down syndrome and severe heart defect that needed a surgery. That was a bomb we did not expect, that started a huge storm in me and changed our life forever. It took several months to calm it down in me. At first I could not accept our daughter’s disability but after her heart surgery which took place 6 months later, I realized that I love her to death and will do everything I can to make her life better. That I will never let her down again. “Seven Years Gone” played a crucial part in that process too. It was the song that helped me get back on my feet again the most. The lyrics and the music were my greatest shelter and source of motivation. That’s why this song is so dear to me now, even though it was my #1 anyway since I first heard Aftermath, which I totally adore.
For the next few years I was taking Alice daily to various treatments, rehabilitations, and countless visits to doctors. She was developing very slowly, but she was the greatest fighter I’ve ever seen. The first sit, first walk, first word, first sentence. Everything happened way later than with a healthy child, like her older sister, but even the smallest success of hers, was our greatest ceremony. She has taught us a true measure of love. True meaning of life. True scale of patience. And our family got stronger because of her. To get more details about that period please read this testimony of mine, I wrote after her heart successful heart surgery (click HERE) and watch a documentary “Trisomy 21” about our family below (with English subtitles).
On the way, one other important fact changed in our life. I was running my own business with few friends since 2006, with a lot of success, organizing various corporate events, trips and conferences locally. But as the years were passing by I was losing my breath in it. I no longer had passion for it. I was forcing myself to go to work almost every single day. I was not bold enough to quit and look for new way to get a living and risk financial turmoil in our family budget. The company was my baby too, and it was really a hard decision. It was actually Alice’s presence that made me realize that life is to short to waste it for things that are against our heart. And one more person. Richie Sambora. Yes, after an amazing show in Berlin in 2012 that we’ve been to (more on that click HERE), where I filmed the whole show and you can see my footage in the cover video, I also saw Richie twice in 2014, in Berlin and Cologne. And actually the second show was the key. I remember it clear as if it was yesterday. I got a great spot in the second row, finally having a chance to look him straight into the eyes for the first time in those 3 shows. Keep in mind that by then Richie was already a year away on his own, without BJ. He left because his heart told him so, even though it seemed totally shocking and reckless. I was fighting the same fight. I was a prisoner of my job too, though economically very safe and sound, but until then my heart was losing the battle against the reason. Until I looked into Richie’s eyes and saw a free and happy person. It showed there might be something good waiting for you even after making the most unprecedented decisions in your life. The risk will always be there but if you don’t dare to fail, sometimes you might lose the most important thing – yourself. I remember calling my wife, while driving 1400km back home from Germany, that I made a decision and I am quitting my job and my company. She knew me very well and confirmed it’s the right thing to do and we’ll get through this together. And so by the end of 2014 I was out, jumping into the unknown.
What was the alternative? Well, the only one that came to my mind was…music. It was my greatest passion all my life and I’ve played in few bands before. We decided to start a new one with my wife, as she is a self taught vocalist too, with the most beautiful voice in the world. It was the music that got us together almost 14 years ago in the first place. We wanted to start a typical band for events, weddings, galas, live-music evenings etc, to play covers with my friends. To earn for the living while doing the thing we love. And so we did it. Starting from the scratch, starting with the name – SPARK. Which was ignited that night in Cologne, and also the day Alice was born. That spark formed a band with friends and it was going quite well at the beginning. Nice gigs, pretty good money and it looked quite promising. But later on, for various reasons we had to change our squad a couple of times. By the way, that’s when I also understood personally, what a blessing it was to have Richie in the band for 30 years. It’s not easy to keep a group of 4-5 people together. The music project slowly started to slip off in 2017, but that was not the only reason.
In the meantime, simultaneously, I started to volunteer in charity foundation that supports people with Down syndrome, both children and adults. It is called “Ja też” which in translation means “Me too/I also” (here’s its website: https://jatez.org.pl). It was set up by the parents of kids with DS, and they all were fighting for the better tomorrow for them. And there’s a lot to do about it in Poland. In education, in independent accommodation, in creating jobs and the list goes on and on. I decided to join and add some of my experience and time. At first I could reconcile it with the band’s activities. But one day, end of 2017, one of the office employees had to step down day by day, and I was asked to take on that position right away – which was taking reservations of the speech therapy and taking care of its schedule. It was taking me big part of my day, which eventually led to the less and less time for the music and the band. As the months were passing by, naturally my motivation and attention was leaning towards helping those with special needs, opposed to band needs and my music ambitions. We stopped playing gigs, we stopped rehearsing etc. But also one of the members had to leave our city for good and another change in the squad, combined with foundation duties led to the fade of the SPARK.
But there was also a moment that both of these worlds combined for a greater good. I was asked to write a song for the foundation, like kind of an anthem. For months I was thinking what the lyrics should be about. I didn’t want it to be too shallow, or too cheesy, too depressing or too glorious. That extra chromosome has been a part of our life for few years by then, but to put it all in words was a bit too much. In the meantime I decided to make my other dream come true and learn to play piano, as the guitar was the only instrument I was able to play, since I was 15 (of course, trying to follow the footsteps of my hero Richie). And believe it or not, I finished an online course that helped me understand the basics and the chords in less than 20 days of rehearsing. Of course “SYG” was one of the first songs I wanted to play and I finally did. This was crucial to the birth of the song for the Foundation. I remember the day the first verse came to my mind as it was yesterday. At 3am at night, as I was falling asleep. I wrote it down and thought it might be a good direction. When I woke up, I sat down to the piano, not guitar, the piano I barely learned to play 2 months before, and wrote the melody in one day (verses, chorus, bridge), finished the lyrics in another 2 or 3 days, and the song was done in a couple of days. The title is “Ja też”, just like the name of foundation. Of course my wife sings in it. I decided to tell the story from our daughter’s perspective, telling us about her dreams, struggles and goals. It’s a song about and for all people with special needs, but also for every person looking for the right place in life for them, including myself. Leaders at the Foundation loved the lyrics and gave me green light to record the song (they didn’t know the melody for quite long though, it was a surprise for them). I asked my music friends for help, our keyboardist Grzegorz helped me in finishing the music conception, added some parts musically and we both polished what I’ve composed. The whole band recorded their parts in a professional music studio and we got it mixed by a music professional from Warsaw. He worked with many leading musicians in Poland and also at some point played together with Tony Levin, who as you may remember played bass on Richie’s first solo album. So another Sambora connection on the way. The song was done in April 2017, but quite shortly after its premiere online (with a simple lyric video), I learned that one of the greatest rock stars in Poland is also a father of a daughter with DS, only his daughter is an adult. The band is almost same age as BJ (started in 1987), it’s called IRA and their leader and vocalist – Artur Gadowski, was the guy. On Polish music market this band is probably as known and big as BJ is in US, in proportion of course. Definitely one of the greatest bands in Polish rock history. I was their fan too and knew their songs very well. To say the least, this band supported Aerosmith already in the 90’s and Bon Jovi before that show in 2013, the day our Alice was born! Another unbelievable story and again life has taken me a full circle back to fit all the puzzles together. The moment I heard the news I decided to write to him using social media, if he would like to help our Foundation by maybe joining us in the song. And he replied right away he would love to do it. He really liked the song. I was so touched. Just imagine asking one of your idols to sing in your song. It’s kind of like asking Richie to play in your song, only in Polish reality. The result of this collaboration was recorded and the professional video was done too in March 2018. You can find it here in the link, it has English subtitles on YT too, so you could understand the lyrics. I’d be honored if you take few minutes to give it a listen (YT link at the bottom of the page).
After 9 months of my work at the therapy schedule, we (at the Foundation) decided I should change my position and work for organization’s PR and funding. And I’ve been doing it since October 2018 and still do. In this time we organized 2 big charity balls, music concerts and smaller events that helped us raise lots of money. We’ve met so many wonderful people willing to help our cause. Famous musicians, actors, athletes, celebrities etc, as well as anonymous people of good will. This is not an easy job though. I would not even call it a job. It’s a kind of mission I think. It gives me a lot of stress and pain sometimes, fighting for the rights of those in need, for the funds, for their better future. But also gives me incomparable joy and satisfaction every time we succeed for them, with every small step further. That extra chromosome showed up in our life 7 years ago and we thought it was the end of the world. For sure it was, but in opened us totally new door too. We’ve met so many wonderful people, families like ours, all living against the odds with everything they got in them, and still being happy. Working at the Foundation, I understood how much work still needs to be done, at least here in Poland. I am doing it because I feel there is no other way. I am doing it for Alice and for all other kids and adults with DS I met over those years. That includes Michael, who plays the leading part in the music video to our song I mentioned before. He’s one of the most important people I’ve met in my life few years ago. Without a doubt. I’ve learned so much from him what humanity is all about. For the last 6 months I also had a pleasure to assist him on a huge TV project based on a Belgium series called “Down the Road”, which shows 6 adults with DS on a trip throughout Europe. Its first Polish edition is being aired on the biggest TV channel here, and is a huge success. He is one of those 6 members, and this 12 episode series already changed awareness about DS in Polish society. It was really needed. One step at a time. But it gets better. We just gotta keep doing our job.
And this all brings us to this cover of “Seven Years Gone”. We used to play it with SPARK years ago. This song was so important for me we just had to put it in our repertoire. We had this special acoustic arrangement. At the beginning of this year I accidentally found tracks on my hard drive we recorded in 2015. Turned out they included SYG. We recorded it then on a digital track recorder, so kind of like studio quality. I remember we did it in our home and it was done in one take. Back then there were only 4 of us in the squad: vocal, two guitars and piano. I changed nothing in that recording. We decided to add some more tracks now though: bass and percussion, with the help of guys who joined the band later, backing vocals and extra keyboards. It wasn’t easy in these pandemic times and everybody recorded these new parts remotely at home. I just mixed it altogether and mastered it with the help of other band member, Przemek. It was my first interaction with music in probably 2 years. I really missed that and even though I was working late at nights I enjoyed every second of the process. And here it is, the final version you’re hearing now. I am so happy we have it and can share it. It’s the best reminder of that period and my most important and personal piece of music we’ve ever done, along with that original song for the Foundation. I am forever grateful to my band mates – Grzegorz, Przemek, Rafał, Sebastian and my lovely wife Żaneta for this wonderful journey together and for taking part in finishing and recording of this cover too. They are the greatest. Without them none of it would be possible. Kudos to them. If we won’t play together again, it was worth trying and sharing that passion together for some time. Making music will probably always be my unfulfilled dream. Sure I miss playing, I miss the band, I miss creation process. I even wrote few more songs and hope one day we will record them too. Who knows, maybe it will happen.
As you probably have already noticed this song literally saved my life and the reason why I decided to post our cover now is not accidental too. 7 years gone. Exactly then my life has changed. A really important 7 years. I thought that completing the cover close to the day of my 40th birthday, also quite a number, would somehow close this chapter in the right way. In general this song is untouchable to me, perfect in every aspect, my fav Richie song of them all. It was very personal for him, and is to me too. It has become my armor in the trying times, and the voice of hope for better tomorrow. During those years luckily I had several interactions with Richie on Twitter. He has seen and RT some of my tweets or videos, for example of our daughters singing to his songs, which was very cute. Especially when he replied to the video of our older daughter Natalie singing SYG in the car 5 years ago, when she was just 6. We are one big crazy family of Sambora lovers, that’s true. I wrote many reviews and recorded many videos about our admiration to his legacy. We recorded 2 other covers too. “Every road leads home to you” for cover contest back in 2013, when Alice was still in her mummies belly, and “I’ll Always Walk Beside You” after her heart surgery few months later. You can see all that below. SYG cover is the third and the last cover we did of the Aftermath songs. The one we gave the most heart, skills, time and energy to. My big wish is that Richie’s sees it. This is our tribute to him. Our most sincere and personal THANK YOU we could come up with. Richie has been in my life for 28 years of those 40 here on earth. His music keeps me sane, but also keeps me positive, no matter what, after all these years. 28 years ago I found Richie or he found me through his & bands music. 14 years ago I met my wife. 7 years ago Alice was born. So, another 7 years are coming and I am sure another milestone is on the way. Bring it on!
I am waiting for Richie’s new solo album like nothing else. I am sure there is a song in there that will be my best friend for another chapter of my life. And most of all, I sincerely hope that one day I will finally be able to meet Richie personally, shake his hand and thank him for this amazing journey. That’s my ultimate dream. I was so close a few times, within hands reach, but still not happened. Maybe next time, on the new tour, after the whole pandemic is over. Let’s hope he pays a visit to his fatherland, to his Polish brothers and sisters one day and gives us one huge kickass show. If not, maybe we’ll meet somewhere else. Life has already given way more than I asked for, so I keep the faith this dream is possible too.
“Time, Time, Time, Time ticking. Time, Time ticking away.
That’s life, it’s all about living. Taking it day by day.
Flying blind, leave it behind, singing a different song.
One day you’re waking up, you’re seven years, seven years gone”
Sometimes even 40 years gone. So true, man. So true.
Thank you for reading. Greets from Poland
Kuba
Here are the links to the videos we’ve recorded during those 7 years: