The profile picture is a pastel painting I drew of one of my musical idols, Jaco Pastorius. Been around as a drummer for a long time. I'm self-taught but I seemed to have a natural affinity for music. I was fortunate enough to work with and learn from such tremendous local musicians as Billy Haynes, Marty Townsend, Mike Hall, Bobby Santa Cruz, Kenny Senter, Mark Yeary, Rick Troxel, Glenda Robles, Denver Cross, Tim Cartright, STEVE PERRY (by way of Lemoore)  and many more as we played in local bands like Steppin' In, BT Champion, Pressure Point, Rage and others. Thanks to EVERYBODY I had the pleasure of playing with for giving me so many cherished memories over so many years!.....I had the "dream come true" good fortune of playing and touring the world  for a couple of years with Tina Turner and, entertainment-wise, you couldn't ask for a better role model!  It was pretty cool being able to experience something that special with another hometown musician that I, not only respected, but, had spent many years playing and developing a close friendship with, Billy Haynes. During my second year with Tina, Billy was invited to join Lou Rawls and, after his tenure with Lou, (by which time we'd both rejoined the B-town music scene) we formed B.T. Champion which evolved into Pressure Point, a band that appeared on the original Star Search.............In following years I had a brain abscess which put me in a coma for a while and knocked out my left-side motor functions. I'm lucky in that I was not expected to live, let alone, return to any degree of normality in my daily life! The most hopeful prognosis was my ultimately being a wheelchair-bound vegetable. I struggled to learn how to walk and use my left hand and foot well enough to play drums again. However, one unwelcome side-effect of the brain damage was having a seizure condition that would enact its debilitating nature at the most inopportune moments (especially onstage!). Though I had returned to touring and playing locally, I kept experiencing episodes that eventually caused me to feel completely unreliable to offer my services in any capacity of the music business in general.  These circumstances caused me to quit playing for about 8 years and, though it was heart-breaking, I felt in my mind that I was done with playing completely (and accepted it)  but fortunately, with the help of improved medication for my neurological disorder, I'm back at playing again (with a lot of catching-up to do!). I guess not being consumed with feeling sorry for myself eventually paid off!!  Hopefully, I'll be around for quite a bit longer as my chops slowly come back. For the time being, I'm very happy to be playing in a band with Bunky Spurling (that I affectionately call "Buzzards on a Gut Wagon") and thoroughly enjoying every opportunity to be actively involved in something I passionately love........PLAYING MUSIC!...........Now that I'm in my "Golden Years" (truthfully, I don't understand what's so f***in' GOLDEN about 'em.....Everything in the body stops working right, slows down considerably or needs replacement parts!!),  I'm hoping to rejuvenate the youth-oriented world of entertainment by participating in a long-overdue resurgence of the quality of music only the experience of a "Gray Panther" can offer......That is, if I don't wind up with dementia or in a rest home first!! 

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