I feel extremely blessed to have the career I've had. I definitely practiced long and heard to get to this point but, it all seemed to just happen and happen fast! Within 6 months of learning how to play the guitar my brothers and I were playing (and winning) local Casino talent shows. that turned into our first professional gig, a party at Bowers Mansion Park just outside of Reno. that turned into more gigs, parties and weddings. My fathers business was dissolving (long story) and we ended up moving from Reno to Los Angeles. The quickest and easiest way to bring some money in for the Family was to get a job playing music so, we somehow landed a 13 week gig at the L.A. Bonaventure. we were also the backup band for a singer my Dad met named Donnie Brooks, he had a couple hits in the 60's. he was also the guy who sang the theme song for the "Super-chicken" and "George Of The Jungle" TV Shows (if you're old enough to remember those) He was also an "Agent"???... and booked us as the band for some 50' revival shows where he was performing and the emcee. One tour consisted of The Coasters, The Drifters and The Platters among others. I was 16 years old at that point. At that time, 7 of us were living in a 1 bedroom apt. in Sun Valley, CA (not a great situation) so we wanted to relocate up north and had Donnie Brooks put us in touch with an Agent (a real one) in the Pacific Northwest and we were off! for the next several years we lived in Hotels for a month at a time playing from Canada to Oregon. After the Family band finally broke up, I felt my best option was to find a band and keep playing music since that was the only real skill I had. After maybe 3 years of giging around the L.A. area, I was asked if I was interested in playing with Laura Brannigan and I, of course, said YES!!!! Since then I've sorta just walked into every other gig I've done. It's almost like my career happened without me realizing it. I guess I should pay closer attention. ;)
