Joel Watson: Let's Zeppelin to Italy By Michelle Queen

Joel Watson-Let’s Zeppelin to Italy
A One-on-One Interview with Joel Watson

By Michelle Queen, ENGL 336.002

Sitting on the perforated bench with his Phi Mu Alpha shirt, Joel Watson is clear about what his true passions are.  Joel Watson is an English major and biology leadership minor at Frostburg State University.  Definitely an interesting combo, but he states that “leadership is always a good skill to have.”  In the past Joel was a part of The Bottom Line, and he is currently a member of Frostburg’s chapter of the music fraternity Phi Mu Alpha.

“I love it,” he says admiringly of his fraternity, “This and studying abroad was one of the best decisions I’ve made.”  Joel received the amazing opportunity to study abroad in Florence, Italy.  He in no way became a fluent speaker of the language.  Since he lived next to a monument all he had to ask was “donde es...” and he could easily make it back home.  When asked about how delicious the Italian food tasted, he was surprised how American the food was.  Something else surprising was that he was in Italy the same time that the Jersey Shore cast was filming, but it wasn’t a party. One night they were both at the same nightclub and in the cliché, false ego fashion, one of the body guards for the cast smacked Joel’s friend’s camera to the ground.  He also traveled to Austria and Germany and admitted he’s “never seen anything so pretty,” referring to scenic mountains, lakes, and rolling hills of the countryside.  He was asked if he would rather live at one of the locations he visited or live at home: with some consideration he answered home.  Most of his family lives on the east coast, but he did contemplate on moving to Florence.

Joel in his free time likes to watch classic movies with actors like Clint Eastwood on Netflix.  He loves to play music with various instruments such as the piano and guitar.  He has an eclectic music taste, and recently he is into bluegrass.  The first band to get him into music was the widely popular Blink 182.  Joel also loves to play the guitar. When playing the guitar, he is influenced by music greats like Dave Matthews, “he has a weird way of playing and a weird rhythm,”he admits. He is also influenced by John Mayer.  His favorite song to play is Rain Song by Led Zeppelin.  Joel admitted when he first tried to play the guitar it didn’t work out so well, “I couldn’t concentrate, I hated it.”  Just look at what time does.  Some of his recordings can be found at http://soundcloud.com/joel-a-watson.