Meet Gladius Connors of Gladius in Lilburn

Today we’d like to introduce you to Gladius Connors.

Gladius, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My uncle gave me my 1st guitar when I was 10 — an old Argentine classical. Not exactly the most playable instrument I’ve ever known — the strings felt like they were about an inch (slight exaggeration) off the fretboard. But that didn’t stop me from beating the heck out of it anyway.

I took private lessons during middle & high school, with the exception of a break between the ages of 13 & 15, during which I primarily pursued creative writing. Upon completing my 1st novel, I made the fatal error of putting my pen down–and I’ve yet to take it up in any serious capacity since then. Perhaps one day…

Not long after that obsession fizzled (for the time anyway), another took its place. The recordings of guitar legends like Eddie Van Halen and Randy Rhoads definitely caught my ear and I started to pursue that advanced form of electric guitar driven rock and metal full throttle.

About a year or two into that obsessive stage of guitar pursuit, I decided to take on a different style of musical challenge, and commenced classical guitar lessons with Professor John Sutherland–THE premier classical guitar instructor in the state of Georgia. RIP.

To say that I owe a lot to Professor Sutherland’s invaluable instruction would be a prodigious understatement. Studying with a maestro like Sutherland is very convicting–it openly exposes one’s weaknesses, faults, and short-comings. This often inspires one of two probable outcomes in a student:
-Burn your guitar
-or-
-Practice your tail off

Needless to say, I thought I’d better at least learn how to PLAY that guitar decently before burning it… After high school, I furthered my musical studies at Georgia State University, but that time was short (more on that later)

I ended up teaching guitar lessons part-time for a few years, but it never really took off and I sought out supplementary work (landscaping, etc).

It was 2008 before I really started performing (and always on the electric). This period was accompanied by a vicious cycle of seeking out musicians, forming bands, and joining bands, and all the while generally making no tangible vocational progress to speak of, until…

In the fall of 2010 I received a call from someone wanting to hire live musician(s) to play for about 30 minutes before the start of a special event in a restaurant setting. I was offered something like 25 bucks, and quickly realized this not going to be a full band gig, much less a loud electrified gig (like I was used to at that point).

Most of my repertoire up to that point (mostly my original material) was overwhelmingly electric guitar driven, but I had started to dabble with composing on the Spanish/Classical guitar somewhat. I think I had two solo-guitar songs written and arranged (‘Flamenco Frenzy’ and ‘El Matador’) and I knew a couple of classical pieces, and if that wasn’t enough to fill 30 minutes, then I’d improvise the rest. That’s exactly what I did, and that became my 1st solo gig.

By that time I had adapted the stage-name ‘Gladius,’ which is Latin for ‘sword’. It’s not the Roman short sword I’m referring to but the ‘sword of the spirit’ (Ephesians 6:17) — “’cause you know sometime words have two meanings,” as Led Zeppelin would put it. I had been using ‘Gladius’ as my band/project name, but eventually adapted it as my own stage-name, as my band basically became a glorified solo glorified solo project. From that point, I started pursuing more solo gigs.

Once getting started, solo gigs became a no-brainer–I didn’t have to recruit a drummer, bassist, etc…teach everybody my songs…explain that we’re not likely to make any money…and then somehow, miraculously, get guys to play the gig anyway…only to repeat the same cycle for the next gig. It was all work and drama — and no money.

Performing as an acoustic solo-artist changed ALL of that. now I could play for all age groups, all kinds of venues, and get PAID for it! (Try that with a prog metal band.)
Since making that shift, hundreds of doors have opened that hadn’t even realized existed.

The pursuit continued, and by 2013 I was playing up to 100 shows per year, and the solo-performing career was my full-time gig. In 2016, I branched out of the southeast a bit, and ended touring about 23 states–many of which I’d never seen before. For ’17 and beyond I am focused on touring the U.S. (East coast, primarily), performing for all ages in diverse venues–theaters, libraries, retirement homes, schools, etc.–and whatever else the good Lord has in store for me, and if He wills it.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
12 Years/4 Surgeries/10,000 Hours of PT.

A few years ago when I was started to study the classical guitar formally… To put it one way, I woke up one day and two of my fingers didn’t exactly wake up with me. If you’ve haven’t had your foot fall asleep, you must know the numb-tingly sensation I’m referring to. The problem was—they didn’t wake up. It turned out there was ulnar nerve entrapment in my left elbow (that’s your ‘funny bone’ nerve). I started doing physical therapy and all conservative measures of treatment, but it was simply not helping. So by the end of the year, after being forced to drop several music performance classes, I resorted to scheduling a surgical operation in order to correct the cubital tunnel syndrome in my elbow.

Well, I was just about to go in for surgery when I started to experience the symptoms in my other fingers—and also in my other hand. As it turns out, there was nerve damage in both wrists AND both elbows.

I did eventually have those surgeries, one arm at a time. Now, if you’ve ever had a surgery you probably know that surgeons don’t like to give an exact prognosis. Anyway, the biggest number they ever gave me was 6 months—for complete recovery. Following the operations they gave me some hand stretches to do, which I did regularly as instructed. 6, 8, 9 months down the road….”Well doc, it’s somewhat better, but not nearly back to normal. Now what?”

So at that point I sought out a physical hand therapist and started doing physical therapy a 2nd time around. And I did that PT religiously and relentless (still do!). If anyone reading this is going through PT at the moment, all I can say is this: listen to that therapist. It may seem a bit grueling at times, and you don’t plan to have to do it every day for the rest of your life if you can help it, but… that’s what I’ve been doing for the past decade, and Lord-willing, that’s what I’ll keep on doing.

So altogether, it’s been 12 years, 4 surgeries, and about 10,000 hours of (ongoing) PT (not that anybody’s counting) and—praise the Lord—it’s a miracle I can even play at this point. The Great Physician gets the credit for that. And so I aptly entitled my first album after this experience, Post-Operation Demonstration.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Gladius story. Tell us more about the business.
Currently performing 100+ solo guitar concerts per year as a ‘flamenco-gringo,’ the Gladius concert experience fuses an eclectic hybrid of elements: the spontaneity of flamenco, the orchestrated layers of classical music, and the aggressive intensity of heavy metal.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Luck? There is NO such thing! Everything that happens happens for a reason. It is only by the grace of God that I am doing what I am doing today.

Now if you want to speak of fortunate experiences..

More of a humbling moment than anything — it was a great honor and privilege to open for one of my long-time favorites and influences, Phil Keaggy (2015).

Contact Info:

• Website: www.gladiusmusic.com
• Facebook: facebook.com/gladiusmusic
• Other: http://www.youtube.com/user/acgtr27

Image Credit:
Thrasher Horne Photos are provided courtesy of Stephanie Kloeckner (Thrasher-Horne Center).