Rich Wells

Born in North Florida in the heat of the summer. Parents had to spray water on the roof of our camper to keep me from suffocating in my crib. Listened to alot of country music growing up (the 80's kind), memorized various Spiderman records and entire episodes of He-Man and re-recorded them on my tape deck. Read my body weight in comics (which wasn't much at the time but was still alot of comics). Used to think MC Skat Cat was cool, then I discovered Guns n Roses. Started a band with my friends called "SteelHorse" (never mind not a single one of us knew how to play our respective instruments). Heard "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and realized that Guns n Roses wasn't half as cool as I thought they were. After that the soundtrack to my life was a steady rotation of Pink Floyd, Bad Religion, Butthole Surfers, Meat Puppets, Dinosaur Jr, and the Violent Femmes. Never heard Bob Dylan but my dad liked him and I had money to burn so I bought "Biograph" and it changed my life. After that I wanted to become a folksinger. Started writing more and stopped listening to as much of other people's music until I found "Rain Dogs" in a box of old cassettes at a friends house, where I immediatly became the "One Man Tom Waits Cover Band". From there I became more interested in spoken word artists. Turned on to "Dead Prez" by a friend of mine I discovered a whole new world of musical possibilities and finally regretted having given my brother so much grief for listening to "Rap" music (Of course anything without substance I still cannot tolerate no matter what the genre). Two and a half years ago started a band with a few friends called TOYTV (we've got an album coming out soon) which was exactly what I needed because you can only do the solo thing for so long before you start to repeat yourself. I do not have ANY faith in those in power but I still have faith in humanity. I am not Anti-War but Pro-Peace and I look forward to having it on earth no matter how unlikely it seems. I reject violence and fear and support anyone who speaks out against it. I surround myself with good people whom I love and who give me love in return and if I were to die today then I can truly say that I had everything that I needed in this short life: Love, laughter, and truth. ...And maybe some quality sushi every now and then.