That was my 10th grade Phys ED teacher's encouraging line after my band's performance at school. Much supported by my parents at the time, my career started early in music. At the age of fifteen, I was playing drums and singing cover tunes in bands at high school dances and special events around town. Playing a grand opening of a Bob’s Big Boy restaurant in my neighborhood convinced me that I’d finally made it. By then the desire to play music was securely planted.

 
Switching to guitar at age seventeen, because no girls ever notice the drummer, I started getting serious about a music career and performed every chance I could. Playing roadhouses and dark, dungeon like bars at an early age taught me guitar discipline and performance chops. But also honed my skill at dodging beer bottles, inebriated hecklers and outrunning bar owners. Finally moving to Hollywood in my twenties, I was now writing and performing original music where I started playing showcase clubs and immersing myself in the LA "scene". Hair color was optional at the time. For a brief moment, Warner Bros. Records became my boss.