I was born in a small town in North Western Ohio. My Mother was a huge Country music fan. She and My Aunt used to travel around, meet and hang out with some of the coolest artists of that time, Loretta Lynn, Faron Young, Tammy Wynette and Marty Robbins. Marty and my Mother became friends and eventually it ended up being a regular thing for me to hang out backstage, amongst the country music elite. Although I was too young to realize the level of cool that it was, something about all of that changed my world forever. That and Elvis Presley.
Since then all I really wanted to do is play guitar and write music. I wanted to be Ace Frehely. I took guitar lessons from age 7 until 10. I was more into Star Wars and GI Joe than practicing at the time so I got bored and quit. Within a year, I re-discovered KISS and found out about bands like LED ZEPPELIN, BLACK SABBATH and THE WHO. Needless to say, I never looked back from that point on.
I started playing in bands when I was 13. Bars and clubs at 17. I moved to Nashville when I was 19. A few years later a couple of friends and I started a band called MELLOW DOWN EASY.
A couple of years ago I realized that I was starting to accumulate a ton of songs. Songs that were not right for or in the same vein as the music of my band. People started to take notice of songs that I had written. I started hearing from friends, labels, publishers that I should start writing songs for other artists. Basically, just write for the sake of writing. Not because of an album or specific project, just...write.
Then agents and promoters started calling and knocking at my door, wanting to stick me on a stage with just an acoustic guitar hanging around my neck!
I declined. "How do I exist on stage without an electric Les Paul guitar to hide behind or a wall of bass guitar and drums?"In the fall of 2007, MELLOW DOWN EASY just got off of a Summer tour and we decided to cut back our schedule a bit, begin work on a new record, and other different projects. Then...the agents and promoters started calling me again. This time, I figured "What the Hell? Why not?"
Famous last words.
