Jake Bids Farewell to the Uke

The Jimi Hendrix of the Ukulele is hanging up his custom Kamaka tenor. Having wound up his latest--and apparently farewell--tour, ukulele wiz kid Jake Shimabukuro is taking a play from Joaquin Phoenix's book and is walking away from music at the top of his game.

Jake has announced plans to pursue a recently-discovered passion: running marathons. From the announcement article from KHNL:

"I just turned 30 in November so I thought this would be a good way to put my 20's aside and run into my next decade," he explains.

Jake's been training for his first marathon for 4 months. "I'm a little nervous. It came around fast. I think I'm ready. If you're not ready in the last week, you're as ready as you're going to be."

He hated running when he started, and could barely do one mile. He loves it now! "You get into this meditative state and it becomes therapeutic."

Jake's decision was apparently motivated by a recent nightmare experience during a recent concert in Alaska. While signing off with his signature arrangement of Crazy G,

"...the crowd kept taunting him to play faster and faster until his hands became invisible and he was in danger of spontaneous combustion. The intensity brought him a well-deserved standing ovation."

But at what cost?

For the big official announcement scheduled for today on Jake's site, click here.

Full story here: Link