I started playing drums at the ripe age of 10, after watching the drummer in my father's church play. The way the drums moved and drove the musicians thrilled me every Sunday. After learning one beat layed out by the church drummer I set out to learn the drums on my own. For four hours a day I would pound on the drums in the church until I found John Bonham and started to cultivate my sound based on his driving bass drum.
I found a band in the church and started playing club gigs at The Nitro (a local punk club) at the age of 14 and eventually caught the attention of a well respected band called Baby M. I moved to Chicago with them and played for several years until the band started to fizzle. Upon returning to Tulsa I joined two bands of note, Pit Bulls on Crack and Phat Thumb headed up by Travis Fite. The diversity of these two bands, one being thrash metal and the other a New Orleans funk band, propelled my drumming in a new direction. At this time my mind was a sponge and Travis tuned me into lots of new potential influences like the Meters, and G Love. Adapting the sounds of the deep south with a root in hip hop my drumming once again took on a new light.
My next adventure was a 7 piece band called Fuzz where I met my best friend and writing partner for life, Beau Charron. We just seemed to click in the John-Paul kind of way. We formed a band called Miniver Cheevy and have been recording songs for our masterpiece to this day.
A few weeks ago I was asked to play drums for Leon Russell and have been on the road with him playing dates up and down the east coast and some in the middle too. It's been a whirlwind but I am loving every minute of it. Leon is one of the greats and I am humbled every night to share the stage with legend. My wife has been the biggest supporter of mine in this and I love her so much for everything she does for me everyday. I don't know where this road will take me but I'm ready for it...that's for sure.
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