Music is something that runs in the family for me… My father was on the road touring the country at age 17 playing the saxophone with big bands such as The Bob Calame Orchestra (Arranger for Lawrence Welk) and Dick Mango (Arranger for Stan Kenton). My brother went to The Shenandoah Conservatory of Music in Winchester Virginia. Me… I got my first drum set at age 5… My grandparents bought me a little toy kit that I thought was the best thing in the world… I remember when I broke my first drumhead… Not realizing they were replaceable, I cried like a baby… Later, at the Christmas of 1979 and after years of playing on old used kits I managed to scrounge up, my grandmother bought me a brand new Pearl kit from Chuck Levin’s (Washington Music Center). My Grandfather had sadly passed away that year and left money for each of the grandkids… knowing my love to play drums my grandmother knew exactly what to spend that money on. Needless to say, I’ve been a “Pearl Man” ever since… As a matter of fact, I still have that original Pearl kit… I also have a new Pearl Session Customs in the Midnight Fade finish. I use primarily Pearl hardware also but my hi-hat and kick pedal are Tama ”Iron Cobras”. I’ve always used nothing but Zildjian cymbals. My heads of choice right now are Aquarian. I’ve tried a number of brands of sticks but I keep coming back to the Vic Firth “Steve Gadd” signature series stick. Maybe some of his abilities will rub off on me… Speaking of great drummers, I grew up thinking there was no one better than Neil Peart but then I saw Mike Portnoy live at the Warner Theater.

I’ve played in many bands and have played many styles of music… from Country to Christian to Classic Rock to Heavy Metal… I’ve even played for a few theater productions but my true love is 70’s 80’s Rock… The first serious band I was in was called Assassin (Chris Poindexter was the lead guitarist)… Our most memorable moment then was in 1984 when we played the DC101 Battle of The Bands and made it all the way to the final four bands where we performed on the Washington Monument grounds… When we didn’t end up winning the grand prize that day the crowd got a little upset. I still have the recording of the “Greasman” telling the story the next day about how “The bottles were flying…”. Since then I’ve played in local cover bands such as Whack-A-Mole and Slider (to name a few)… but it’s soooooo cool to be back with Chris and Rocking the house with “Fish” and “J.R.”… what an incredibly talented group of players and an absolute blast to hang with!... Come on out and join in the fun!... Coming to a club near you!