Well folks...much like every other musician out there, at a young age, it was discovered that I had a natural affinity to music.
In school, all band instruments seemed fairly easy to play, and I always ended up relying on my ear rather than the sheet music.
My favorite trick was to ask the teacher to play it first, this way I could "hear it" see? Later, my piano teacher called this "cheating". BAH!
The bass clef was by far my favorite, and I cannot explain why this is.
In school, the trombone became my "axe" of choice, and, for about 4 years, I really had fun with it...that is untill I got BRACES!
This ended all those countless hours of practice for obvious reasons.
I just couldn't play the same with all that metal sticking to my teeth!
My older brother Corey was very active in bands, playing drums and guitar during this time...
so I found myself picking up the guitar more and more.
I bought an old Gibson SG (I wish I still had it) and began forging out the classics like Ozzy, RUSH, Kansas, Heart, ect.
I loved the difficulty and skills needed to play this type of music!
I should give thanks to my brother Corey, for he was the poor soul that had to spend hours helping me pick this stuff out and show it to me! His ear was very advanced, and mine was not so at the age of 15.
It takes years to get good at picking out this type of stuff, but its worth it if you want to go the distance!

Fast forward through a thousand bands and a million gigs...
The Salem Ash years, that involved fellow Florentine Doug Busbee, (now Agent Cooper) is how I came to meet Rich Ward (the culprit for getting me in Fozzy, Stuck Mojo, and The Duke).
I returned the favor by introducing him to Mike Martin and Eric Frampton.
The rest is...and is currently making ...HISTORY!!!