I grew up in eastern Nebraska, where the Platte river runs into the Missouri river. It was a pretty ideal place for a young boy. Plenty of room to roam and explore, without too many worries, other than drowning in the rivers or falling off one of the bridges that crossed them. Or getting accidentally shot. If you know anything about small town America, you know that hunting and guns are part of the scenery. At about age twelve, we used to roam the countryside in groups of six or eight all armed with shotguns and rifles. (We took some half hearted shots at a few squirrels, but we were mostly interested in shooting beer bottles). That was a different time of course. If you ever saw the movie "Stand by Me", you have an idea... typical small town America.
I got the performing bug at an early age. My family was quite a creative and entertaining bunch. We made movies that spoofed other movies with titles like, "Heck's Angels", "Gold Bond", and the classic "The Creep That Ate Beaver Crossing". Music was also a big part of my life. From the first time I heard the song "Peggy Sue" by Buddy Holly, I knew I wanted to play the drums. My parents sent me to piano lessons in hopes, I'm sure, that I would forget about the drums. No such luck. I'm really glad that I had the piano lessons though. We had an excellent band director at my high school, and I learned a lot about drums and percussion from a classical direction, and I took private lessons to learn contemporary styles. It was the only thing that got me through life in my adolescent years as the small town had turned into a stifling and hostile place for anyone who didn't want to conform to small town life.
My real education came when at 17 I went to the "cosmopolitan" town of Lincoln to go to college (UNL). I started hanging out at the "Zoo Bar" where I got to see the best blues musicians there were. That's when I got serious about playing. They had wednesday night open stage jam sessions run by serious players who didn't tolerate fools. It was a great place to learn. I made it to enough classes at school to complete three years, but my heart was set on being a full time musician. I majored in Music, Journalism, then English Composition, all things that I would find useful later on.
I went on to play professionally in several bands(quite a few actually), a couple with national attention, and even some international interest. I got to play on numerous recordings, and with a wide variety of musicians. It was a lot of fun, and a lot of work. I also owned an ice cream store, an antique store and a delivery service. I also was doing some free lance video work and managed to produce and direct a couple of projects. I really enjoy that work. It's a tough business though, very competitive, like the music biz. I have always enjoyed photography and have had some photos published. Along the way, I got married, helped raise my step son and got divorced after twelve years. After my divorce I continued to work 80 hour weeks as a way of dealing with things (or not dealing with things), until I was physically and mentally drained. I ended up moving to Hawaii where I took computer classes, (and met a lot of wonderful people), and now I'm embarking in a new direction in the computer world. I have since moved back to Nebraska (temporarily) and hope to be back in Hawaii soon.
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