Chapter One: A Stone is born (by Mike Stone)
At the age of five I remember dabbling with my father’s guitar on a daily basis and falling to sleep at night with the sounds of The Easy Rider soundtrack dancing in my head…..If Six Was Nine….Born To Be Wild…The Pusher….But I realized that the life of a musician is one of constant rejection and struggle. I decided to become a lawyer.
On my 8th Birthday my Aunt Lynda, an attorney, told me to go out and look in the back seat of her cool 68’ Camaro. Lying there was a brand new acoustic guitar with my name on it. I brought the guitar inside per my aunt’s instructions. She then sat me down and said “Whatever you do….Don’t become a lawyer.†It was settled…..Rock and Roll here I come!
By the age of ten I was gigging regularly covering vocals and electric guitar in the band Ace high with my brother Dave on drums. I was hooked. I formed other bands and started exploring many styles of music. I learned to play as many instruments as I could get my hands on including bass guitar, upright bass, mandolin, ukulele, flute, harmonica and banjo.
At the age of nineteen having played in jazz, Dixieland, country, rock and plenty of metal bands, I decided to take it to the next level. I bought a one-way plane ticket to Los Angeles.
