Christina (Tina) Blunk is 39 years old and currently has two jobs- when she’s not a nurse’s assistant, she serves pancakes and burgers at IHOP to help pay off debts.
Tina had a rough childhood but used music to get through it. Whenever asked about her mother, Tina always says, “My mother was very loving, but she wasn’t really a mother.” When she was 12 years old Tina’s mom was letting her drink, smoke, and tattoo herself. She recalls skipping school often and asking her mother to buy her cigarettes. Then there was another situation that she didn’t go into much detail upon, but explained how, when it came to light, her family was not supportive and didn’t believe. So the courts didn’t feel like her mother would keep her safe from the situation at hand. Tina explained how she didn’t think her mother understood that to love someone. It means you protect them at all costs and don’t allow them to be exposed to certain things.
When the courts found her mother unsafe for Tina, they put her in foster homes. After everything that had happened, music was even more crucial for her during her teen years. She felt like the music she listened to then was soothing and relatable. She even recalled connecting to Ozzy Osbourne's “Mama I’m Coming Home” after not staying with her mother for three years. However, living with her foster parents did not give her much freedom to listen to what she wanted to. Her foster parents called her favorite band, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, “devil music” even after she played for them a song that she believed to be beautiful and full of meaning. After playing for them the song “I Couldn’t Lie,” they ended up calling a family meeting where they gave her an ultimatum: give her mom that CD or throw it in the trash right then and there. So Tina returned the CD to her mother.
Between fourth and fifth grade Tina became interested in joining band. Originally she wanted to play clarinet because of a fascination she had with the reeds. Unfortunately for her, her mom had a different idea and pushed her to play the flute. She got her first flute and began learning, but because of a lack of discipline and initiative to practice, she says she wasn’t that good. Though, after playing flute for years, she has a great appreciation for classical music and the work and dedication that professional musicians put into it. Some of her favorite memories came from being in band. Her band went to Ohio State University, and she was in awe by their band, remembering how cool they were and how much she liked watching the script OHIO spelling. Her second favorite memory was when her band went with the school choir to Opry Land, and they all performed together.
Before MTV aired dramatic reality shows, they were known for their music broadcasting. Tina used to love watching MTV all the time. She watched everything they played from Aerosmith to Genesis, to Whitney Houston, or U2. While her mom wasn’t much into music, which is a thought that perplexes Tina still to this day, Tina’s sister was obsessed with Whitney Houston. Tina’s first cassette tape, however, was one from Tommy Page. Tina attributes her diverse affection for music to her love of MTV. She loves all music, whether it’s pop, alternative rock, classic rock, country, or grunge rock. She joked around saying, “My neighbors probably thought I was bipolar. One moment I’m listening to Eminem, then Nelly, then the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and I would even toss in some Christian music.”
Despite her own mother not being big on music, Tina has made music a major component in her own family. Her oldest daughter played the viola, and her son played the saxophone and taught himself how to play the guitar. She would always get him little toy guitars that he would break until one specific toy he had when he was about eight. This toy guitar would light up along the neck where your fingers would go. At that point Tina decided to get her son a real guitar and, sure enough, he learned to play it. She bought him everything: the pedals, the big amps, an electric guitar, and an acoustic guitar. Tina recalls teaching her son songs like “La Bamba” and “White Wedding” by Billy Idol. He would even play songs from her favorite band, The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Tina loved playing the flute, but never really saw herself performing, especially after being kicked out of band for throwing the band directors keys in the garbage during a rebellious retaliation for him embarrassing her in front of the class. She does, however, wish her son would have continued playing guitar and that he would have considered a career for it. “He was so good at playing the guitar… I just loved watching and hearing him play. Like most people, like my kids even when they were horrible, it was so soothing and it just made me happy,” she said.
Despite loving music so much, she admits that there are a couple types of music she would like to go away and not be made anymore. One of which being EDM, which she described as “techno-rap stuff,” another being ICP, or Insane Clown Posse. If you’re unfamiliar with ICP, they’re a hardcore hip-hop duo originally from Detroit in the late 80s. If she could bring back any genre of music, she would love for classic rock to make a comeback and strives for a grungier sound, saying that modern music has gone soft. She still likes it, but she prefers rock. She joked around saying, “That’s my thing. The devil’s music.”
Overall she thinks that music is so wonderful because it’s relatable, and it can bring people together. Unfortunately, in her life, certain music has been known to resonate bad memories. Musicians like King Diamond and Pink Floyd are among those that she won’t listen to anymore because of memories she associates them to. Her children’s father’s father would listen to Pink Floyd and come home drunk, and she knew the stories of what he would do. But when his dad passed, he became more like his father before his dad got sober. He would blast Pink Floyd, and she compared life with him like that to a video she saw of a man going crazy and smashing everything in the room. She recalled a time when they would have to hide knives from him in the oven. She even accidentally baked the knives while preheating the oven and not realizing that they were in there.
You would never expect sweet Tina to have been through the things that she has. It is even further inspiring to hear the way that music has affected her and assisted her through the bad times. Music has an intense power that people often overlook, but not Tina. Not anymore.
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