Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, I started out on clarinet around age 11 or 12 and at the age of 15 picked up the bass guitar and haven't put it down :-) Earliest musical influences were my parents' 45's and 78's played on my little record player consisting of 50's and 60's pop, blues and classical music. Then I started to hear early 70's AM Radio where the sounds of Chicago, The Carpenters, Jim Croce, Stevie Wonder, Hall&Oates, The Eagles, Queen, BTO and others caught my ear. In 1977 my life and musical outlook changed forever when I heard the "AJA" album by Steely Dan. Since then, they always have and always will be my favorite composers and musicians. Around 1979, I heard the bass solo from "My Generation" by THE WHO and was instantly hooked on bass. My parents gave me a bass for Christmas and I went ballistic. My influences then consisted of RUSH, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC and and just about every movie soundtrack I would hear. First influences on bass guitar were, of course, John Entwistle, Geddy Lee, Tom "T-Bone" Wolk, Walter Becker, Chuck Rainey, and Berry Oakley. A few years later I was exposed to James Jamerson, Jaco Pastorius and Marcus Miller and was profoundly influenced by those players and their music. I was also exposed to quite a bit of jazz and became a big fan of Charles Mingus, Ray Brown and Milt Hinton. I started out in local Cincinnati bands during High School @1981-83, moved to Florida in 1984 and played in several Bradenton/Sarasota bands before being "discovered" by a music agent from Orlando who promptly removed me from my band and put me on the road in early 1988 with a touring Top-40 act that went all over the country. During that time, I was fortunate enough to play in Atlantic City for several months at Trump's Castle and The Showboat, and was able to see a lot of great musicians and especially bassists. It was a tremendous learning experience for me, epecially at age 22-23.After many years on the road and brief stays in Jacksonville and West Palm Beach, I settled down on the Gulf Coast of Florida near Pensacola around 1992 and have played here in local bands including Miss DeMeanor, Automatic Johnson, Hubba Hubba, RoShamBo, The Lynne Campbell Band, and Mike and The Micros, and have done studio work for the past 14 years or so. In the meantime, I've become a father to three wonderful kids, and continue to work on improving my skills as a bassist and musician. I'm working on songs for a solo CD which I hope to complete sometime this year. I'm also working on a childrens book and a horror novel which is complete and in the process of polishing and revision. I currently play bass and sing lead vocals with a band called "The Shiz" playing in Pensacola and on Pensacola Beach. Check us out at www.myspace.com/theshizband I play bass with a side project consisting of The Shiz guitarist, drummer and myself, called SIGNAL-SEVEN. We completed our CD of original songs in June of 2007 and the CD was released in March of 2008. We're already starting to get some air play on 99Rock and TK101. Check us out at: www.myspace.com/signalsevenband
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