I first picked up the guitar at 8 years old, took a few years of lessons, and in my first band at 12 years old. Been playing ever since.

It must have been around 1973, and I was around 12. Jadwin Auditorium, Princeton NJ - Chicago Concert. Surreal experience, as I couldn't believe I was under the same roof as these guys!

My main axe is a 2004 PRS Custom 24 private stock, which I had modified by taking out the 5 way dial knob and replacing with 2 micro switches and a Gibson style 3 way switch. This gives me about 12 different sounds from clean strat-like, to fat Les Paul-like sounds. Given the versatility and terrific playability of the guitar, I rarely switch to another when I'm playing live these days, except for my main acoustic, which is a Taylor 914CE which is just a lovely guitar. I also have a Gibson SG that was awarded to me by Gibson for best guitar player, during a Consumer Electronics Show Battle of the Bands in Vegas about 7 years ago, which I play from time to time. Other guitars include a Fernandez Flying V style Sustainer, with a built in sustaining pickup. Effortless sustain and harmonics - under-rated and awesome. I have an old Casio midi guitar from the 80's which has a midi out and runs into any standard midi synth, in my case an old Proteus. I rarely use it these days, but it tracks really well and is a lot of fun. I have a bunch of others too; a Strat and a Paul, but don't pick them up often. These days for playing live I use Line 6 (sorry purists). My Marshall days are behind me. My current band requires that I jump from one sound to another, and the Line 6 gives me simple flexibility to do that, with pretty convincing tones. I've managed to get some killer sounds out of it given it's a modeling amp. I also use a Line 6 M13 floor board for all my effects.

The Beatles of course. The first time I listened to them I think I was 6 years old and the Hey Jude album was out. Then I went back and discovered all their earlier catalog and was blown away by literally everything. Learning Beatles songs was how I began learning guitar. Even today, one of my current projects does I Am The Walrus which I only recently learned to do in this project. I was stunned by the awesome chord changes even today. Queen is my number 2. Brian May was such an influence on me, from the first time I heard A Night At The Opera, and those killer guitar orchestrations and amazing tone. Same deal - I went back and discovered all their back catalog after that and was just completely taken.

I am in a cover band called Virgin Vinyl. We play what most cover bands don't or can't; Bohemian Rhapsody, Funeral For a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding, Foreplay/Long Time. We'll mix that in with Aerosmith, Bruce, Meatloaf, etc, and also do some newer music from Pink, No Doubt, etc. We play 2 to 3 times a month at local clubs. We've been around about 8 years and have a very nice following. This band came together on a whim, when my company was asked to sponsor the aforementioned Battle of the Bands in Vegas. I told the guy I'd sponsor it if my band could play at it. They agreed, and I pulled this band together 2 weeks before the show. We won the Battle by the way. And with a couple of musician changes, the band is still together 8 years later. My first band was MAD when I was 12 (for Marc, Adam and Dean), followed by the Elastic Band that won some local talent shows and we got to open for Soupy Sales of all people. Then my high school band was Insight, playing the local dances etc. Then I was in a band called Euphoria after Insight broke up for a couple of years. When New Wave came in 1980 I did a short stint with a band called Tight Spread. Then, my old friend Marc who I've played with since MAD and throughout High School formed an original project called Race. We've been writing original songs since we were 12. Now that we were 21, we began to take our writing seriously and penned more than 100 songs together, and formed a band to perform them in search of the record deal. By 28 the record deal didn't come, but we created some great Power-pop songs, 2 of which landed on the cult classic, the Toxic Avenger (Is This Love and Nothing At All). After that I went back to guitar lessons to improve my skills and did a wedding band stint for several years, which I quickly became very bored with and stopped doing weddings at 32. From there I focused on my business career, got married, had kids, and took a hiatus from playing with bands. At 42, I formed Virgin Vinyl and have been playing with them since.

Steve Vai. I could learn so much from that guy. Just an amazing player with such technique.

As a kid, we played an outdoor concert at a mall in front of 5000 people. I'll never forget that. At the Vegas Battle of the Bands we played in front of about 1000, which was something. Typically though, when we do out show called Rock Out Loud a few times a year, we typically draw between 300 to 500 people which is always a blast. I don't know what the smallest crowd was, too many to remember. To this day I long for playing to a super huge audience in a real venue, just to have that experience.

Queen's Sheer Heart Attack. Incredible songs, versatility, musicianship.