To this humble starting point I added a 20" Avedis Zildjian Medium ride cymbal, a unidentified 14x14" floor tom in gold sparkle, an 8x12" Slingerland tom in silver pearl, replaced the sizzle with a 16" A. Zildjian crash and replaced the Sears high hat with a pair of 14" Zildjian New Beats on a Tama Titan stand.

I took some lessons before I even got the drumset, starting on a Sears chrome snare and playing rudiments.   My teacher wasn't even a drum teacher, she taught general music, mostly piano.   I learned mostly from records (vinyl ones!) in those pre-VCR days so I didn't learn traditional grip to start and once I did learn I was already so comfortable with matched-grip that I just didn't take to the traditional way.   Oh Well.

Then I met some guitar players and in the summer of 1976 we formed a band. We had Joe on lead guitar, Steve on bass and vocals, Sean on rhythm guitar and vocals and George on Fender Rhodes piano and vocals.   We covered the Doobie Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd (Sid Barrett days), and some originals.   We did some park freebies, some benefits and some paid gigs. At some point Steve and I learned to think enough alike (musically anyway) that we could just start improvising jams with just bass and drums, just weird, progressive stuff that sounded a little like King Crimson.  Time signatures?   We don't need no stinkin' time signatures!

Well, all good things must come to an end, and our little band was no exception. Joe moved on to contract estimating, Steve dropped off the radar screens, George got a big head and moved on to bigger and better things. (He runs an auto parts store and and still plays in local clubs.)  I got an audition with a band that was scheduled to tour with "Dire Straits".   I got the job (they said I sounded like Bill Bruford), but chose instead to attend U.C. Berkeley.

Now, 22 years later, I finally have some time to pursue the drums once more.  I have two kids to raise, so I'll not be jammin' and giggin'.  Turning little babies into productive citizens is a lot of work.  But I will tune up my chops, work on my reading and independence, and maybe give some lessons.