PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic A short biography - letting go of an unreached aspiration... share your own story

For as long as I remember, I wanted to play music. My favorite toys were ones that made music, and I would pick out tunes by ear.

We couldn't afford lessons or an instrument.

In the sixth grade we moved to Florida, too late to get in the band, so I joined the Tonette (plastic recorder) band. The 6th grade folks went on to the 7th with the same rented instruments so my only option was drums. I really wanted to play Baritone horn (Euphonium) because I loved the voice.

I was good at the drums, learned my rudiments quickly and then the tenor sax player's family moved away. The band director asked "Who wants to play the sax." I guess I was more enthusiastic than the others and for $10/month which my parent's really couldn't afford I played the sax.

I was in beginning band for a while, learned quickly, skipped intermediate band and went straight to advanced. By the time I got to high school, I sat first chair in the all-state band every year, and was awarded section leader, something that goes to the first alto by default.

In high school I made a bit of money playing in a rock band. We were terrible, but everybody was.

I tried to join the Air Force but flunked the physical and was rated 4F due to chronic lung issues (the sax eventually cured me of that). So instead I joined a band, and went on the road playing college towns in just about every state east of the Rocky Mountains.

Eventually we became the opening act for big stars of the day in concert, The Four Seasons, The Association, The Kingsmen, and so on. After that we got absorbed into Motown and opened up for most of the great Motown acts, Marvin Gaye, Miracles, Supremes, Temptations, and so on.

We were supposed to be the first all white band to be on the Motown family of labels. Talks broke down over money. Motown wanted to pay us 2 cents per record, and out of that take inflated recording costs, inflated distribution costs and inflated promotion costs. In addition they wanted full publishing rights and a ghost writer who didn't contribute to the song writing at all would get his name as a writer and get half the songwriting royalties. Our manager figured we would have to sell a million copies of our first single and LP to break even and not owe Motown any money. We held out for 2.5 cents a record, and they dropped us.

They hired their second choice, The Sunliners (also a very good band). But Motown wants to own the name so they could hire and fire plus run a few ghost bands out on tour at the same time, so the Sunliners changed it to Rare Earth.

I went from opening in concert twice a week back to playing 6 nights in a bar from 9 to 2 for about 1/4 the money. The band broke up.

I went home and joined the phone company, while still playing the weekends. I thought normal would be OK but for me normal was sooooo overrated so I went back to playing music full time.

I took electronics as well as music in college so phone came easily. I also tried a few years as a Cable TV Field Engineer but that wasn't satisfying either.

I realized for me it's more about enjoying life than the money. I've never gotten rich, but I've never been poor either.

I was in quite a few bands, married and divorced (it's tough being married to a musician) and one day I spotted the most beautiful smile in the world in the audience.

I got to know her, she was in another band, and we became each others' fans.

Our bands both broke up about the same time so we got into a 4 piece together, followed by a 5, then a trio with a great pianist and then another 5.

Personnel problems plagued us with people quitting, being out of work to break in new players and in 1985 I bought a sequencer and that gal with the great smile and I started duo with my backing tracks.

All my years on the road taught me guitar, bass (I even played bass for Freddy Boom Boom Cannon), keyboards and I doubled on all these. I had a good knowledge in music theory and arranging from school, so it was pretty easy to make backing tracks for myself.

We targeted the 55 year old + audience in Flrida, a huge, reliable market (until COVID) and never looked back.

BTW, I eventually married that gal and we are both extremely happy.

We had a magazine article about us here:
http://www.nortonmusic.com/pix/IndianRiverMag.pdf

When Band-in-a-Box came out, I used my arranging and multi-instrumental skills to write styles for BiaB. I gave them to my friends, and they told me they liked them better than the PG Music styles (aren't friends great) and I took out a classified ad in Electronic Musician and started selling them on the Atari format.

One day Peter Gannon called and offered to turn them into IBM format (DOS and now Windows) so I could sell to his bigger market. I thank Mr. Gannon to this day for his continuing kindness and support.

I bought a DOS5 PC, and a Mac Classic (OS6) and it's been my sideline business every since.

So far the majority of my life has been spent making a living doing music and nothing but music, interrupted by 2 'day jobs' for a few years each while playing on the weekends.

I have no intention of retiring even though I'm of retirement age. I love what I do, I've learned to sing, Leilani my wife is a great singer, and we both play various instruments on top of the backing tracks I write.

I feel I'm living a charmed life.

I never made 'the big time' but got close enough to tast it.

On the other hand, I get up in the morning, go to bed at night, and in between, do what I want to do. That's success.

I work for myself with my wife who is of like mind, a great musician, and my best friend. We don't answer to anyone but our audience (and they are easy) and are not wage slaves to some faceless corporation. That's freedom

When COVID is over, we'll be gigging again.

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