____ many years (lot of years)

I started playing bass guitar on accident... Yeah lol I accidentally a bassist rite?

I was hanging out with a girl, who had a band in her barn... no srsly they practiced in her pole barn. The bassist was dating a teenage drama queen and was a no show more often then not. The guitar player John Bryson Greene (Bryce as we all knew him until he passed away and we attended his service) picked up a cheap Ibanez Fender copy (in the late 80's Ibanez made junk) and had me play using the guy's rig... Bryce showed me what he thought the bass to some songs was... and off we went. We played a few shows at teen friendly clubs in the area, one of which at last check is still in business (Somewhere Else Tavern in Greensboro NC) and we played oour high school talent show... which was a debacle. I got away with being very undisciplined because Bryce didn't care what I played when we played covers, as long as it was somewhere in key and in time...

After Bryce died that band broke up I floated in and out of people's garages and basements, finding out that playing incorrectly was not always appreciated... I tried my hand again at guitar but bassists were in such demand, more often then not those were the ads I answered.

I landed a gig, with a very strange mix of misfit musicians playing 50-50 mix of originals and covers. We managed a mini tour and several high profile gigs, even though quite honestly we sucked. Our covers were mangled our originals lacked substance and structure.

I again found myself between bands, trying to forge my own group of misfit musicians... I found the misfits alright...

I was considering selling my gear when I got a call to play in a band that had been formed by a singer I admired before she moved on... We ended up with a revolving cast of guitar players (including myself for a minute) drank a load of beer and had a great time for nearly a decade...

Financial circumstances (read Bush crashed the economy) forced me to move to the black hole of music in South Carolina.

I saw Kiss with opening act Ted Nugent in Grensboro NC

I went with a couple of friends from school, we sat in the parking lot drinking Mad Dog 20/20 so most of the show is lost to memory.

I have an LTD by ESP f-204 an Ibanez Sound Gear fretless and a reassembled five string made from Ibanez Hamer and various parts. I Hartke stack with a 4 x 10 and 1 x 15 Cabinet

I also own a Jackson King V guitar, floyd rose and EMG p/us an Ibanez Iceman a Randall protubes guitar head and a fender 4 x 12 plus various f/x and a few pieces of cheap PA gear.

new band mates

Influences?
For years I listened to players like Rudy Sarzo with their simplistic 8 note groove and thought if it was good enough for them... having seen Quiet Riot live and seeing how Sarzo is actually a monster player, changed my attitude.

I began trying to emulate different different aspects of different players. I started playing in the pocket for the first half of a riff and busting out at the end ala Sting.

I started adding rests for effect ala Gene Simmons.

I experimented with different rhythms for playing a single note pedal like Cliff Burton.

For a time when I was practicing daily and gigging twice a week I had incorporated two hand tapping into several songs (need it or not)

From a writing perspective, I like the A-B-A-C style riffs of Metallica, and the dropped tuned aggressiveness of bands like Disturbed and Godsmack. I'm trying to get more into single single note metal riffing like Megadeth even though I have lost all motivation to practice and write these days.

RECENTLY RELOCATED


I just moved here to Deltona Florida hoping to get into the music scene.

Henry Juarez and Eric Rudy, from my last band, we had good times together and I miss those two guys.

Biggest? a couple thousand at Pelican Stadium at Myrtle Beach during Bike week... not surprisingly our heavy metal did not go well with the Southern rock fans there to see 38 Special and SRA - they hated us.
Smallest? Like all bands, I have played for our girlfriends and the bar tender...

It would be a tie...

Guns n Roses Appetite for Destruction. I first heard the album after seeing them live touring with Motley Crue. To this day it has no song that I would hit the skip button on.

Metallica ...And Justice For All At the time it came out I found it relevant to world events at the time. Shortly after the big crash of '08 and subsequent occupy protests I blew the dust off the disc and discovered not only do the lyrics still hold up today, but the music is an example of what four of the most bad ass musicians in the world in their prime can accomplish.