I'm 40 years old now, been playing for 24 years or so.

My first concert was Stryper with Hurricane opening for them at the Patriot Center in 1988. I went with my friend and guitarist, Robby Casteel. What was most memorable was that after the show, we got to meet several members of Stryper and got permission from Michael Sweet to use their band's old name, Roxx Regime, for the band we were forming.

I have a Fender Squier jazz bass that I adjusted and customized myself. I'm also playing a Fender Strat guitar and an off-name acoustic that I'd love to replace with something better, as soon as I can afford to.

I was quite the teen angst child in high school, which led me to heavy metal in my teen years. Cliff Burton, Steve Harris, and Nikki Sixx were my biggest influences bass-wise, though I also drew songwriting influence from such varied artists as Pink Floyd, the Beatles, Heart, and of course other metal acts. As I got older, my musical tastes broadened and I wasn't writing metal any longer - not that I don't still appreciate it, but I write from my emotions and I just wasn't *that* pissed at the world anymore.

I'm currently playing with several acts. The first is The Zen Monkeys, a local original music act with Suzanna Mallow from AMI/Seagull Studios, in which I play bass and sing the occasional backup harmony part. They're a very eclectic mix of many different genres, from bluegrass and folk, to modern rock and country, to even hip-hop. I'm also the back-up bassist for a local classic rock act called Tranzfusion. In both acts, my work is very much part-time, so I am quite available for other work - either as a performer or behind the board. Hey, I even help load equipment!

Oh, I would *love* to sit in with the "classic" line-up of Pink Floyd. Or CSNY. Maybe even Metallica. Jeez, so many artists and bands...I just love playing with good musicians, no matter what their name is. Some of the best musicians I have *ever* seen were just people I saw in Memphis, jamming out in blues bands in smoky clubs. Most of those people will never see the cover of Rolling Stone, unfortunately...even though they deserve it.

Biggest audience: playing with a "hard country" act in Mississippi at a fundraiser festival. Easily 4-5k people there. Smallest? I've played in coffee shops to 2 people before who considered us as attention-worthy as the wallpaper.

The most memorable performance was the (not so legal) senior party held after our graduation in 1990. The party was held on a family farm of several hundred acres, literally out in the middle of nowhere - 12+ kegs and probably 300 or so people there of varying ages, all students and former students. By this time, our band (the aforementioned Roxx Regime) had graduated from playing covers to writing our own material, and earlier in the spring we had released our first tape (remember those?) freely around the school. The party hosts had hired a cover band from Fredericksburg to play on a flatbed trailer, gas-powered generators running in the background and everything. We asked them if it would be okay for us to play during their break, and they said yes. Now...while they were playing, people were all over the field - some at the stage, many in little clusters around the field, milling about the kegs, the usual huge party. As soon as we got up there, the ENTIRE crowd rushed the stage and cheered us on as though we were rock stars. We played only our originals, and these people were screaming our lyrics back *at* us.

It was better than sex.

Heart's "Little Queen" album. It contains my favorite piece of music of all time: "Sylvan Song" going straight into "Dream of the Archer". I was probably 15 when I first heard it, lying in bed with headphones on, lights out. I swear, I think it induced an out-of-body experience. Even now, 25 years later, that song gives me chills.