Height: 6' 4"
Bloodtype: Red
1966: Born on November 6th in Carbondale Illinois.
1969: Moved to rural Pennsylvania.
1971: Received my first guitar: a Sears "Deluxe" all-metal guitar with suction-cup cable and battery powered cardboard amp. I wanted to be a Beatle.
1972: Received my first guitar that worked: a Stella acoustic guitar. My parents bought "Are You Experienced" by Jimi Hendrix for me at a flea market
for $1.00.
1973: Took guitar lessons. The teacher used the "Mel Bay" method. I gave up after a few lessons because reading music was boring and it didn't sound my favorite bands which were: The Beatles, The Osmonds, The Jackson 5, David Bowie, and Led Zeppelin.
1976: My 4th grade music teacher showed the class the steps of the major scale on the blackboard. I went home and figured out the scale on one string of my guitar. Suddenly the guitar started making sense to me. I started teach myself by ear.
1977: I played my first electric guitar: My uncle Jimi's Ibanez Destroyer. I was blown away because it was so easy to play!
1978: I got a used Gibson Les Paul and a Fender Vibro Champ of my own. The woman in the music store told me "If you turn the amp up past 3 it will BREAK!". I was on 10 within a week. It didn't break.
1979: I joined my first rock band. We were called PARADIZ. It was supposed to be PARADISE, but the drummer ran out of room when he was painting the logo on his bass drum. We played "Hold the Line" by Toto, and "Renegade" by Styx. I played guitar, but I also sang lead vocals on "Rain" by The Beatles, and "Take the Money and Run" by The Steve Miller Band. There was a bass player and a rhythm guitarist in the band too. All three of us plugged into my Vibro Champ.
1981: I formed my first band that sounded good. We were called "The Atomic Basement Band" and later became "Missing Lynx". We did lots of RUSH, Van Halen, UFO, and our own songs. I got an Ampeg V-4 amp.
1982: I sent a tape of my band to record producer Mike Varney and he featured me in GUITAR PLAYER magazine's Spotlight column. I continued to play in local rock bands in Pennsylvania. My dad bought a big chunk of
maple and made me a custom Flying V.
1984: I moved to Hollywood, CA to attend G.I.T. I met bassist John Alderete, and drummer Harry Gschoesser who were also students. We rehearsed every morning at 7am at the school because no one else was crazy enough to get up that early to use the rooms. Mike Varney helped me find Jeff Martin who was singing in Phoenix's biggest local metal band "Surgical Steel". RACER X had begun! I kept a Lee Jackson modified 50-watt Marshall in my locker at school.
1985: I graduated from G.I.T. and became a teacher. Jeff, John, Harry, and I went to northern California to record the first RACER X album "Street Lethal". I used a borrowed Squier Strat and a custom made Wayne Charvel guitar to record the album.
1986: I continued to teach at M.I. Bruce Bouillet was one of my students. He was already a great guitarist and he learned the things I showed him almost instantly. We started trying things in harmony and it sounded amazing so I asked him to join RACER X. He did! Harry Gschoesser's visa ran out, so he returned to his native Austria. Scott Travis joined the band. I bought an old 60's Epiphone Olympic guitar and hot-rodded it with new pickups and a Kahler tremolo.
1987: RACER X started playing the local L.A. clubs. Within a few months, we were selling out the Troubadour and The Roxy. Steve Vai and Billy Sheehan were often in the audience to see us. We recorded our second album "Second Heat".
1988: RACER X was selling out L.A.'s biggest and best clubs. We recorded "Extreme Volume" live at The Country Club. I met some guys from Ibanez guitars. I loved the guitars and liked them. Plus it reminded me of my uncle's Jimi's amazing guitar. So I began to endorse Ibanez. I got a call from Billy Sheehan. At first he wanted to jam, but the next day he asked me
if I wanted to form a band with him.
1989: I did! That band became MR. BIG. We wrote and recorded our first album very quickly and were on the road in a TOUR BUS right away. My rockstar dreams were coming true! We toured all over America and also went
1989: I did! That band became MR. BIG. We wrote and recorded our first album very quickly and were on the road in a TOUR BUS right away. My rockstar dreams were coming true! We toured all over America and also went
to Japan where I was given a Godzilla electric shaver as a gift. I asked Ibanez to put fake F-holes on an "RG" model, and the PGM model was born!
1990: MR. BIG continued to tour. We spent many months as headliners and also supported my childhood heroes RUSH. I stared writing a column for GUITAR PLAYER magazine called "Terrifying Guitar 101".
1991: MR. BIG recorded our second album "Lean Into It". We went back on the road and went to Europe for the first time. We did more touring with RUSH in America.
1992: The MR. BIG song "To Be With You" exploded in the charts and went to #1 in America and 12 other countries. We played on the Tonight Show and David Letterman. We played the Budokan arena in Japan.
1993 - 1996: More MR. BIG albums and touring. I lived through the Northridge earthquake, got married, and moved to Las Vegas. I put a recording studio in my house and called it BATGIRL. I tried a new Laney amp and loved it. I started to endorse them.
1997: I left MR. BIG to start a solo career. Bruce Bouillet engineered and recorded my first solo album"King of Clubs". Bruce also joined me for anincredible 20-minute guitar jam featuring John Alderete on bass, and Jeff Martin on drums.
1998: I toured Japan as a solo artist and lead singer.I recorded my second solo CD "Flying Dog" and got a divorce.
1999: I recorded "Beehive Live" live in Japan, and joined up with RACER X again to record "Technical Difficulties".
2000: More solo albums. More RACER X albums. Ibanezclinic tours. Japanese magazine columns. More studiogear and reading the manuals. studying Japanese. It's fun to be a workaholic!
2001: I got an apartment in Tokyo to take a break for a few months. I traveled back to the states to record"Raw Blues Power" with my uncle Jimi, and "Snowball of Doom - Live" with RACER X, our first live concert since the '80s! Then back to Tokyo again to produce the Japanese band Mr. Orange.
2002 - 2003: More albums, more tours, more Japan living, I became the "Honorary Dean" of M.I. Japan and did an 8 city tour of their schools in Japan. Being a workaholic is becoming tiring. I noticed that I couldn't use my left ear for the phone or to understand anyone talking.
2004: I move back to Los Angeles, sell the house in Las Vegas, and decide to take a VACATION.
2006: I do an instrumental guitar record.
In the future: Medical researchers at U.C.L.A. discover a surgical process to cure hearing loss. I meet Catherine Zeta-Jones's younger sister and we start dating. RACER X music becomes fashionable in the states and we go on tour to promote our new million-selling single "Guys From Space Rock". The aliens who have been monitoring our planet for centuries hear our song and decide the human race is finally cool enough to meet. The aliens take over the world, elect Ringo Starr as President of Everything, and give him a Superbrain-helmet which allows him to be Super smart and end all world hunger and violence. ©Racerxband,2004
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