Me, a Boss drum machine, and a cheap Squier Strat.

Writing songs in my apartment with 2 cassette recorders to bounce tracks. Dirt poor, the best I could afford.

Sounded terrible, yet somehow beautiful

After playing in my bedroom for about a year, I landed my first professional gig

I played a 45-minute set in front of about 8 people. Some originals and some covers (Ziggy Stardust and Losing My Religion are the only ones I remember playing).

I was not good, but the audience was kind, and I made a whole $16 that night.

Working as a bartender, getting ready for the Friday happy hour crowd. Tell a co-worker I’m starting a band and looking for a guitar player.

Guy at the corner of the bar looks up and says, “I play guitar”

That was Dave, we ended up playing together and writing songs over the next 2 decades

Put my first band together, Dave on guitar, DJ on drums, me singing. We had a hard time finding a bassist, so I took that role.

I’m no bass player, it wasn’t ideal, but, as Dave told me, “At least you’re always there on the 1 and 3”

We landed our first gig. It was at a sports bar in Scottsdale, Arizona called Thunder & Lightning.

We needed a name and we settled on “Drowning Man”, taken from the lyrics of a Leonard Cohen song.

We had about a dozen songs, including a power-pop version of Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game”.

The show, was fun. 12 of the 15 people in the bar were our friends and family, and the owner liked our set. They asked us back. So, success.

Drowning Man started playing regularly at Thunder & Lightning, and with that it meant we needed to expand our fan base. That meant hanging posters and handing out fliers.

It also meant hanging out in bars, a lot. But, you do what you have to do.

It also can start to expose your demons. Most nights bacame a party, little did I realize it was anesthetic.

After playing shows for a few months, we got an opportunity that, at the time, seemed cool but inconsequential.

A band from the UK was playing a show at the Library Cafe in Phoenix, we got on the bill as an opener. We played the show, briefly met the headliners and went on about our business.

Turns out that on July 13th 1993 we opened for Radiohead, in a little bar, on a Tuesday night

The recording industry is arranged like a pyramid. As you move up the rungs, the number of artists gets smaller, the stakes get higher, and more competitive.

Throughout an artist's career, they are either moving up, moving down, or, in many cases, moving out of the ladder. Talent is important, but the real work is building and maintaining relationships. With your band, your fans, club owners, managers, promoters, lawyers, and so on.

I was getting ready to learn just how much work it would be.

One of the things about moving up the ladder in the music industry is that most times it isn't the band that moves up, it's a person.

Shortly after the gig with Radiohead, I got a call from Tom, he was a bass player in a band that we played with at T&L. He had joined a new project with two guys who had just left a relatively successful local band.

They were looking for a frontman, and Tom had given them my name.

We scheduled my audition for later in the week.

Time to try out for the band. Visually, it looked more like the singer from Depeche Mode was auditioning for Soundgarden, but I picked up a guitar and played Ziggy Stardust.

For 3 hours, we played, but it was mostly Kelly and Michael telling me about their accomplishments and connections.

Did that intimidate me? Yes, but there was no way I was going to let them know that.

Always need to remember: If you didn't belong in the room, you wouldn't be there