in the years since , he had scuttled his ragged claws through salesman 's jobs , gone around the prickly pear as a disc jockey at a short-lived heavy metal station in fishkill , new york , gone around again as a radio-station engineer , a rock-show promoter ( six good shows followed by a nightmaris h exit from providence in the middle of the night-he 'd left owing some pretty hard guys about $ 60,000 , but no real problem , man ) , as a palmistry guru on the boardwalk in wildwood , new jersey , and then as a guitar tech .