As is any member here, I am a fond admirer of the female form. It is also evident in my photography. But in posing guitars with models in my shoots, I am asked about my collection of guitars and my history in music. So, I will share with you a little more about myself.
Like my father before me, I was introduced and involved in music at a very young age. My Dad had been playing with a band for quite some time, but then became tired with the in-band bickering and egos that create drama. He decided he had taken all he could bare and started his own band. Problem was, in a small town, it's tough to find members for your band start up. He had everything but a drummer. I was 14 and told Dad that if he bought me a drum set, I would learn and play in his band. Two weeks later, I was performing with my Dad's band.
We learned songs and got booked at various locations locally. We also discovered that I could sing, so I did a lot of vocals... which was a challenge at first. But people noticed, and we became quite the busy "weekend band". The man pictured first from the left, was a long time friend of my Dad. The second guy is my buddy, Jeff... we went to school together and are just like brothers. Both these guys would eventually leave the group. My brother learned bass and replaced Fred (pictured left), and another long time friend of my Dad began playing with the band. Yes, that skinny guy in the front, is me.
I would eventually get tired of sweating behind the drums and doing lead vocals, so we got a drummer (had a few different drummers over the years) and I learned a handful of chords on guitar and piano and moved up front. In the picture, is me on the far left, then my brother on bass. My mom is behind the drummer... she sang harmony vocals (also claimed to be the lead tambourine player.). My Dad is playing the red guitar and his life-long friend played guitar. This picture is one of the last times I played with the group. I moved to California in February of 2000... the group stopped playing. My wife claims she is the Yoko to our band... broke us up.
My father passed away 12 years ago, and it really messed me up. My mom passed in 2012. It's tough to think about entertaining when you had such a good thing performing with your family. So After my mom passed and I found the Jaguar that my dad had hoped to restore... I did it for him and found that I liked doing that. I now have 12 guitars... three that I built, two that I modified, three that used to belong to my dad, two acoustic guitars and a couple I had bought for myself back in the day. My Dad's red Jaguar is in a display case in my home. Good memories of younger (skinnier) days.
