Serialization Update! Sho Ayakoji’s “Monohon no Stare* and Tough Guy” Buyuuden (story about the “Monohon no Stare* and Tough Guy” that he met in the entertainment industry)

A rare talent as a fighter

Did “X JAPAN” break up at the NHK “Kohaku Uta Gassen” in 1997 when we formed “Kishidan”?

Was it 1989 or so when I first saw their performance? I wonder what the fire laws were like back then?　It was so crazy, wasn’t it?

HIDE and TAIJI were blowing fire on stage at outdoor festivals, and they went on stage while spraying CO2 from the back of the audience seats. …… After all, that was where they jumped out of the biker gangs and went alongside hardcore punks and played hard rock/heavy X JAPAN” had the “strength to fight” of a group of men who had come out of a biker gang and encompassed everything that boys longed for: hard rock/heavy metal, running side by side with hardcore punk.

They knew how to knock amateurs out of their wits and how to make the experts roar with glee. Not to mention his ability, he is also good at “bluffing,” to say it without fear of misunderstanding. That is what makes YOSHIKI so great. And the most amazing thing is that he is not a vocalist himself.

At that time, many junior high and high school students probably believed that YOSHIKI was the best drummer in Japan. No one knew a drummer with that style to begin with.

Looking at the archive photo, the drummer is a neutral, good-looking person who looks like he came out of a shoujo manga (girls’ manga). She was also driving a battleship-like drum set that I had never seen before, stomping her two-bass at a speed I had never heard before. His long hair and thin, supple arms swinging wildly, he is truly a god of thunder.

But is his drumming the most technical in Japan?　That is a question mark. There are many other drummers who are “super-technical drummers. Even so, he made all the boys think “YOSHIKI is the greatest drummer in Japan. We didn’t “make them think” it, but actually “thought” it. We did.

And now, decades later, when I look back at my own experience as a professional musician and evaluate it once again, it was just a poor expression of a middle child who didn’t know anything about the world. Yes, YOSHIKI was not only “the greatest drummer in Japan,” he was “the greatest rock star in Japan. From that day until today. Always.

I believe it was not only his overwhelming talent as a songwriter, but also his rare talent as a fighter that allowed him to take such radical music and make it into a national song.

Yotchan said he still drinks.

I think it was around 2006 or 2007 when I actually met YOSHIKI-san.

Around that time, I became friends with the vice president of a venture company through a chance encounter, and we often had drinks together.

One day, he invited me out. I remember it was at Cerulean Tower in Shibuya. I was invited to join the top executives of a very famous company having a glass of wine, which would make even a naive person like myself shudder, and there was YOSHIKI there.

At the time, I had no idea what wine was. However, since the heads of Japan’s top companies were serving wine to Mr. YOSHIKI, who is a wine lover, it must have been an outrageous wine with a price that would make your eyeballs pop out.

However, I do not remember anything about the brand name or the taste. I was just impressed with “It’s YOSHIKI-san……. He really exists. ……

A few years later, a wax figure of “X JAPAN” was placed in “Madame Tussauds,” but YOSHIKI was so beautiful that Tussauds was no match for him, and I couldn’t believe he was from this world.

And that’s on a private day, you know?　He is “YOSHIKI” at any time. He never lets his guard down…… No, there is no such concept as letting one’s guard down. YOSHIKI is always perfect, just as we see him on TV and in photos. Even his speech, whether the cameras are rolling or not, is just the same tension. He is always calm and elegant.

He said, “You may not know this, but I am from Chiba Prefecture and I am in a band called Kishidan, Sho Ayakoji.

I greeted him,

I am also from Chiba Prefecture and play in a band called “Kishidan. I’ve been watching your activities.

I was beyond happy and astonished. I was beyond happy, I was stunned. I don’t really remember the rest. I was nervous but dreamy at the same time.

I don’t know if we had been drinking for about an hour or two, but when we said, “Well, it’s time to go,” and were about to leave, the president and the others came up to us and said, “Yotchan, you still want to drink,

I was about to leave when the president of the company said, “Yotchan, you said you still want to drink, so please take care of Sho-chan for me. We have other things to do.

We have other things to do!

The paid version of the FRIDAY subscriptions includes the full text of the first two installments of “Sho Ayakoji meets the ‘Monohon no Stare* and Tough Guys’ in the entertainment world” and illustrations newly drawn by Sho Ayakoji.

The meeting with YOSHIKI finally came true. The “god of fights and music” was overwhelmed by his out-of-this-world behavior from start to finish.