1) Use ear protection: If you want a nice long career as a rock musician you've got to take care of your ears, man! This means wearing ear plugs when your band is practicing or playing a live show. This goes if you've got the typical rock band with drums, bass, and electric guitars. If you have ever experienced ringing in your ears after rehearsing with your band or attending a loud rock concert, that ringing is the sound of Tinnitus, and Tinnitus is something you do not want to be stuck with for the rest of your life, not to mention the hearing loss that comes with it. The list of professional musicians with Tinnitus and hearing loss is a long one, and in fact most musicians I know personally have some degree of it due to playing loud music for years with no ear protection. When you are young your ears can recuperate from exposure to loud sounds pretty well, but over time you will damage your hearing if you don't use proper ear protection. I personally wear ear plugs for every practice session and every show, and you should too. Hearing loss and Tinnitus have forced many seasoned musicians to give up playing loud music to some degree, so this is my number one tip for young rockers: wear ear plugs and save your ears, man! And don't worry about people thinking your not "cool" for wearing them, it is cool. I said so...

2) Don't mess around with drugs: The truth is that drugs are rampant in the music scene. Sure, drugs are rampant everywhere as it may be, but in the music/band scene you will at some point probably be exposed to the hard drugs (cocaine, heroin, meth) and the last thing you want is to be addicted to these drugs. A lot of seasoned musicians have succumbed to the drugs and have ruined their lives and careers, the list is a long, long, long one. Stick with the music, man... don't mess around with the drugs. And here's another good tip: avoid hanging out with musicians or others who are into the drug scene. Don't let any junkies or drug addicts in your band, they will only ruin your band in the long run!

3) Stay in school, get an education: It's very important to get your education and have knowledge and skills outside of the music biz. The fact is that 99.9% of all musicians will not make their living playing music so you really need something else to fall back on to support yourself through life. I know -- we all want to be rich and famous rock stars, but the reality is it won't happen for most of us. You don't want to be a 30-year-old dishwasher, that's what I'm saying. Stay in school, get and education, learn some solid skills and do well, young rockers! "Nuff said...

4) Practice, practice, practice: This I should not even have to mention, but really, if you want to be good you need to practice. No decent musician ever got where he or she is by sitting on the couch playing Guitar Hero, they got their chops by sitting on the couch playing guitar (or sitting on the drum stool, sitting on the piano bench, etc.) If you don't enjoy practicing then you probably don't have what it takes to be a real rock musician and you should pack it up now... that's all I'm saying. Practice to your heart's content and excel, young rockers!

5) Create your own style: Creating one's own style as a rock musician can take a long, long time in most cases, but what you don't want to be is a forgettable clone of some famous rock musician. We all have our favorite players and rock stars who we emulate and who inspire us (mine include Keith Richards and Paul Stanley) but the best thing you can do is to take those influences, meld them with your own pizzaz, and create your own personal style out of them. Don't be a rock'n'roll clone of someone else -- be original, be yourself, create your own style, man!

Follow these important tips and you will go far, not only musically but in life. There you have it, my best tips for young, up-and-coming rockers. Now go ROCK!