I've been playing guitar off and on for 20 some odd years. My first musical instrument was the drums. I aspired to be the world's greatest drummer ala Steve Gadd, Lenny White, etc. Back then you could rarely find me without a pair of sticks in my hands or nearby. Ah, to be young again with no internet, video game consoles and 500 tv channels. All was going according to plan and in high school I knew what I wanted to do with my life, despite everyone telling me to go to college and get that education to have something to fall back on. Music was it for me. Around this time I started playing in bands and Prince was hittin like crazy. I was amazed that he played ALL the instruments on his albums. A keyboardist friend of mine offered me his old guitar that he learned to play on from KMart and I was like "Nah, I'm good wit drums". Then Purple Rain hit theaters and the airwaves. I went to see it like 3 nights in a row. Called up my friend and was like "Hey you still got that old guitar?" Man this guitar was a piece of junk. The strings were like a inch off the fretboard. To this day I look back and wonder how the fuck did I learn ANYTHING on that monstrosity. And the whole concept of the guitar was like trying to learn an alien language. I picked up guitar player magazines and ordered some how to play cassette courses(yes, I said cassette.lol) and got started. Along the way I learned about Hendrix and Clapton and Steve Vai and Malmsteem. I revisited my grandfather's jazz lp collection and listened to Return To Forever and Billy Cobham, etc. this time listening for what the guitarists like Al Dimeola were doing. So then I was living in two musical worlds. At school and among friends it was Prince, The TIme, S.O.S. Band, Cameo, Doug E Fresh and Run DMC. At home it was Stanley Clarke, Return To Forever, Joe Satriani, Yngwie Malmsteem, Jimi Hendrix, Adrian Belew, Robert Fripp, Allan Holdsworth, etc. All of it was good to me. It was like one big song with different parts. But I saw how hard it was to get people to listen to things they were'nt used to. Fast forward a few years and I moved from Savannah to Atlanta. All I wanted to do was play guitar and learn in fuckin peace and I could'nt do that at home with pressure to go to college and what not. So I was workin jobs and just tryin to get better on guitar. Eventually hooked up with some cats to form a lil r and b band. It was allright. Then...a group named LIVING COLOUR hit the scene with a joint called CULT OF PERSONALITY. Just so happens they came to Atlanta to play the COTTON CLUB on the same night I had to find somethin to do because my roommate had some chic comin over. That show was a revelation. Seeing four black men onstage playing heavy hard rock mixed with funk was mind blowing. All of a sudden anything was possible for a down south black man interested in playing some guitar oriented rock music.lol Now I'm shortening this part because what happens next could be put in a fuckin novel. I'll make a seperate post on this later. I formed a black rock group. We played in the atlanta area and got pretty well known and good following locally. Then we were "discovered" by Bernie Rhodes(former Sex Pistols manager). He get's us signed to Sony SOHO records in London, which was being run by his old buddy Muff Winwood(Stevie WInwood's brother). We sign what was put in the papers as a multi-million dollar record deal. We signed the deal over chicken fingers at MICK'S in Buckhead. I protested and wanted to get a lawyer but Bernie shot me down sayin there was no time and the other guys were lookin at me like "nigga don't fuck this up for us"LOL. Classic music industry rape scenario. Anyhow we go overseas and release an EP and tour Great Britian. Record companies ecstatic because the response was so great. They book us studio time with a Guy Sigsworth after the tour to record 3
