I grew up in New Jersey - born in Newark, my life would have been very different if my parents didn't relocate to Green Brook, a small farm town in central New Jersey when I was 8 years old. At that time, this was one of those new neighborhoods - about 8 square blocks; built up in the middle of a cow pasture. Two doors down Ritchie Gray played bass guitar, Two doors up Paul Stewart played drums; across the street Ron Verini had a 63' candy apple red Jazzmaster to die for and just up from him, every afternoon when school was out you could hear Sammy DeSalvo's band playing the greatest music a 11 year old ever heard! Usually, when a kid hangs out with older high school kids it's drugs, sex and rock and roll. Here it was just Rock and Roll! A '64 Strat plugged into a killer Magnavox. A Gretsch drum kit and a Hammond B-3. That sound changed my life. I think I've been searching for that feeling of that first summer ever since - sometimes I even think I'm close to finding it but then it slips.
I went to Dunellen High School and music was everywhere. I remember seeing the Moby Grape in the High School auditorium, The Critters, (Mr. Dyingly Sad) at the prom, The Parliaments, in the South Plainfield PAL hall and of course the battle of the bands in the 'Hullabaloo'. The greatest thing to ever happen to a teenager before I was old enough to drive was that I could ride my bike to the train station and for .65 cents take the train to Hoboken; from there it was a quick trip to NYC - The Village 1966. For $3.00 bucks you could buy a ticket to the Fillmore East - there I saw, "The Who, Janis Joplin, BE.BE. King, The Staple Singers", the list is endless. It was then that I knew what I had to do with my life. Somehow, with the grace of God - here I am en route on the endless pursuit of "music".
