True to my Detroit roots, I began my musical odyssey playing the blues.
One night I made a musical connection that would forever alter my path; at the age of 19, I met the legendary bluesman John Lee Hooker at a club in Berkeley, CA called the "Keystone". I met him through a friend from Detroit, a talented guitarist named Charlie Mahoyian, who was playing in Hooker's band at the time. There was something about Hooker's music that went straight to the soul. It was a ball of burning psycho,sexual, emotional stuff that was way to immediate to be processed mentally. And it was something I knew I needed, wanted, and could contribute to.
Through a string of fated circumstances back in Detroit, at a place called Ethel's Lounge, with Charlie and Gods help, I made my way up on stage with John Lee Hooker and the Coast to Coast blues band. We immediately connected, and Hooker was so impressed he implored me to move to San Francisco and join his band.
Of my experience with John Lee Hooker, I can definitely recount that we just hit the stage smoking. As soon as we started playing together, the whole gig turned around for the better, and for me, the seeds of a real connection to music had been planted.
It was out of that experience that my style emerged. After many years of struggle, I had a breakthrough in my songwriting, and with a little help from my friends, arrived at a sound that is all my own.
Today, my connection to music is truly a personal one. Although I enjoy and respect the many artists of our times who seem to use a cerebral approach to their songwriting, I ultimately realized that my own creative expression must always begin, and end, in the realm of pure feelings. From the heart, hopefully to the heart. For me, the essence is to go deeper, find something true in myself, and bring that out. "At times earthy, at times ethereal...always deep."
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