Where were you born, and what was your childhood like? When did you first begin to fall in love with music and what was it that initially fascinated you about it? Was music something that was relevant around your household growing up?
I was born in a very small town in Northwestern Pennsylvania. My family moved from Pennsylvania when I was only 5, or 6 years old and we moved through a number of states, coast to coast, throughout my childhood years. I rarely started and completed a full school year in the same state. We moved to Santa Barbara, California when I was in my teen years, and that was the last of our family relocations. We all really loved it there. I lived there for many years, much longer than anywhere else, so I consider Santa Barbara to be my home town. I absolutely loved growing up in Southern California, and especially from a music perspective, it was such an exciting place to be in the late 60’s and 70’s. My father was a life long guitar player. He encouraged me to take up the instrument and I started learning to play when I was about 9 years old. Dad was teaching me to play on both an acoustic guitar and his Silvertone electric guitar (with a cool Bigsby vibrato), and a 100 watt Silvertone amp. Dad played and performed classic Country music as a solo artist, and with bands all through time. Although I wasn’t too excited about learning to play Country songs at that time in my life, we moved forward with the guitar lessons and I enjoyed learning the instrument.
Everything changed for me with the arrival of The Beatles and the “British Invasion” groups. I clearly recall the exact moment when something really clicked. I was intently watching the first U.S. appearance of the Rolling Stones on television. I loved their music, loved the guitar driven sound, they all looked so cool on that stage, and an audience filled with hundreds of screaming girls didn’t hurt the image at all! That was it, I knew exactly what I wanted to do, and my lifetime music goal was set. I went from being mildly interested in the guitar, to obsessively practicing and playing. It’s amazing how a single event like that can become life changing! Of course, the Beatles were a huge early influence on my music, but I was more excited about the harder edge groups like the Rolling Stones, Kinks, and especially the Yardbirds. Beyond that time, my interest stretched across many types of music , so it’s difficult to pick out just a few names. I think my vocal style was most influenced by the lead and harmony vocals of groups like the Hollies, Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. I spent a lot of time singing along with Graham Nash, and those way high harmony vocals that he so expertly delivered. I thank him for all the voice lessons he unknowingly gave me back then.