I don’t feel comfortable writing about myself in the 3rd person so here we go. I was born October 30th, 1959 in Pomona Ca. My siblings were 13 and 15 years older than I, and they already had an impressive 45rpm collection of everything rock and roll from the 50’s and early 60’s. I was immersed into it as soon as I arrived home.  My parents were avid swing era dancers, which added to the musical mix in the house. By age 4, the family had moved to LaVerne, about 5 miles away. My sister Donna went to college at BYU the same day I went to Kindergarten and my brother Steve was already married and would soon be off to Viet Nam. My mom bought me my first Beatle album, "Something New" when I was 5! I got a lot of attention growing up. 

La Verne was that land of hills and Orange Groves mentioned in the song World of no Pain. I got a Melody Plus acoustic guitar at the Blue Chip stamp store at about age 8, but the strings were so high, it was impossible to play. This segued into the tenor sax, inherited from my uncle Art, who was a Big Band player back in the 40’s. (That old silver King sax is the same one you hear on any of the Thin Ice material with Tenor sax on it). This instrumental change also introduced me to the local school music program, run by none other than Matt’s uncle Robin. At the same time, the kid down the street got an electric guitar and taught me how to play “I’m So Glad” by Cream. I was hooked! With that came a Teisco ES335 knock off guitar, Chess King amp, and many hours of Creedence Clearwater Revival jams. 

I studied sax from the 7th to 9th grade, but never really connected with it. There was an opening in the Jazz band for a guitarist, so I persuaded my Dad to buy me a used Gibson Les Paul Custom and a Fender Bandmaster amp for 800 bucks. I went down to the local Wherehouse record store and bought some George Benson, Lee Ritenour, and Joe Pass records and started absorbing all I could. I also started taking jazz guitar lessons from a great local player Joe Movich, and soon met up with Matt Snyder. The rest of the story is pretty well documented I suppose. 

I also started a very long-term relationship with the girl up the street, Karen Hart, who I later married and had 2 kids with, Jonathan and Juliana. She was the muse of several Thin Ice songs: "Stay With Me Tonight" (our prom night), "Still a Child" (not ready to get married), "In My Song" (a breakup lament, we were together 7 years before we got married). We stayed together until 2005 when she passed away from cancer. 

I picked up a couple of associate degrees along the way at Chaffey College: One in communications, and another in Radiologic Technology. I’d have a third one in music if I had only finished that last semester of Piano. I worked 22 years in retail management before being laid off. That prompted a back to school epiphany that led to an X-Ray license and CT tech job. At last, I have more time to play with my current band of 20 years, The Dogs. Anyway, I guess no matter what I did along the way, music was always there for me. I’ve always been in a band, and as one band ended, another seemed to begin. I never got famous or even got great as a player, but there’s nothing I’d rather do with my clothes on!