Now I spend my days on tour with Blind Pig recording artist Harper. Traveling all around the US, Europe and Canada playing guitar just about everyday. Music is my life.
But, it all started way back when my mother was pregnant with me. She played bass and sang in the band with my father. By the Age of 3 I was able to keep a beat going on a drum kit, and played at my first Jam session with the band. Thoughout my child hood I would practice the drums daily. And any time a Jam session came up, where kids could be there, I was with what ever band my dad was playing in at the time, and got to sit in a song or two. Untill my little arms got tired! All along I wanted to be able to play the guitar like dad did, but my hands just weren't big enough to reach all the way around the neck.
Soon as I got a little older, at the age of 11, I started to pick up on the bass. It came very fast to me, felt as though I had been playing all my life. I continued to practice the drums, but the passion had moved over to a warmer, deeper, more soulful sound. Still I was not able to play guitar like dad yet.
A couple years went by of playing the bass, and I finally had the strength to grab a full 6 note chord on the guitar. I became saturated with the guitar. Every wakeing hour all I thought about was guitar. Also at this time my dad was playing in the Fatt Lapp blues band. And weekly I would tag along to band practice and just soak up the soulful blues. It was at this time in my life I developed a very strong love for the blues. I wasn't quite able to play guitar with the band just yet. But I loved to listen to the music.
The next few years, all I did was sit in my room and play guitar. I got into a few voice chat rooms where I could talk to people, and play guitar over the net. And I'd spend up to 10 hours a day doing this. Things started to go really wrong at school this time. My passion was for the guitar, not shool. I was downloading every blues MP3 I could find on Napster, and trying to pick up on every blues guitar lick I heard. Blues guitar was my life.
When I turned about 16, an old friend of my dad's called up. John is a drummer/vocalist and was playing with some people, and needed a lead guitar player. Turns out they also needed a bass player. So I got my first gig working with a band. We played amvets, american leigon, VFW posts. That sorta thing. Even played a few weddings in this period. Things were going pretty good, I was playing bass and singing weekly. Playing all sorts of old rock n roll, country, blues, and pop music. Those were the days.
By the time I turned 18, it was time to get down to some real bussiness. Enough of the small time amvet clubs and such. Somehow, by gods grace, Fatt Lapp came back into the picture. Started right out with me and pops on guitar. This was great, we were playing bigger stages. Stuf like Celebration on the Grand, Cow pie blues fest, Kentwood fest, Rogue River blues fest. Along with tons of bars and clubs around west Michigan. We had band practice every week, worked out an entire cd of music, then went to my uncle's studio and recorded. At this point I was really getting a ton of experince as a working Guitar Player.
