Next I joined the middle school band and learned brass and woodwinds. But as soon as I got my ear near a radio it was rock & roll that I wanted to play. In middle school I met other folks with similar interests. I did some repair work for our local music/guitar shop in trade for an electric guitar, I was about 11 or 12.

I was young but I worked on learning how to play rhythm guitar and had a lot of fun with people like Tony V., Bradley M., Mark F. and Donny C but I was really not that good (my best was yet to come).

In junior high I met Phil H. Phil was good. Really quite an accomplished guitar player. We were doing a lot of Led Zepplin, and Rolling Stones (they were new then, now they're "classic rock"). Phil turned me on to bass guitar. It was with Phil that I played the bass first. I fell in love with the bass guitar and the power it had to rock. If I was so, so on guitar I took to the bass like a bird to the air. I bought my first bass from a guy named John in 1974, a Rickenbacher. Some years later, John drafted the Ratz gangster character.

In junior high and into high school I played with a bunch of great people and got my first taste of applause at various dances and private parties. I also played the keys at times. I had a "blackface" Fender Bandmaster, man I wish I still had that amp as it is worth a lot of money now. Then I traded my Bandmaster for an Ampeg SVT. The SVT was insane. It had more power than I knew what to do with, but as all equipment was tube powered then and the Ampeg was notorious for loose, noisy tubes that drove me crazy so I traded it for a solid state Peavy Mark IV. But I can still see those tubes glow the coolest purple color.

After high school I was a little lost and did not know quite what to do. So I got together with my old buddies Pete, Tony & Ron and we began to play as the "Central Ave" band (mostly because we found a central avenue road sign on the ground and it made as much sense as anything else). We did a lot of southern rock like Allman bros. Any party, anywhere, for burgers and beer we worked.

Around that time I also bumped into my friend Jerry A. (a real guitar virtuoso) and we began to play as Crysis like "cry sister". We did a lot of ZZ Top, Black Sabbath, ACDC, Iron Maiden, not many photos survived from that time. We had limited commercial success and as such I had to split and get a real job, I loved to play but I hated to starve.

I picked up an original 1968 Gibson Thunderbird.

At some point around that time I found another Mark IV that was exactly like mine so I bought it. That created "THE RIG". The rig I think took on a life of it's own in later years. It's hard to describe what it's like standing in front of 2 Mark IV stacks outfitted with 4 15" "black widow" speakers.

After several years away from music (during which I went back to school and got married) I got the itch back. In 1990 I had a dream. I wanted to do my own thing. Write my own music, play big clubs like the Stone Pony and Birch Hill and the Chatterbox and play to lots of people. So I went looking for a singer songwriter with good stage presence that shared my dream. I found "Ciid" and the Ratz were born. I also invested an insurance settlement in building a recording studio and "Lightning Sound Productions" was also born. I became a member of the Audio Engineering Society and the Society of Composers and Publishers, ASCAP. The RATZ went through several drummers until Riip joined. Our first drummer, Jonnie Crash, was real good but his destructive tendencies just did not know when to stop. After several fights and confrontations we had to cut him lose. Riip was great, he was always there and destined for success. (I consider Riip one of my best friends) The RATZ went through many singers like Johnny Boss, and Billy (two of the best we had). The RATZ recorded lots of songs and played lots of clubs to lots of people and I will never forget the things we did. I had a ball with the Ratz and achieved all my dreams and then some.

I retired from live performance in 1998. The recording work is in Ciid's hands now. Rock & Roll is really for the young.

Check out Ciid's Web Site ...