The first time I heard You Really Got Me was on the radio in Febuary 1978. The record had just come out.I thought the song was totally cool.I had no idea it was a Kinks tune.A guy at school had the 8-Track.He told me the entire record was Great !!
I was already into music,I’d been taking piano lessons for years. My mom could sing and play piano. She had the radio on all the time mainly 70’s AM pop/Rock. I was into those AM radio hits. I had bought more than a few albums with my own money. I had Elton John’s Greatest Hits,BTO 2, a couple Zeppelin albums.Everyone had Frampton Comes Alive.Foreigner,Boston,Foghat just to name a few. When Ronnie Van Zant died in a plane crash in October of 77 I was crushed.
My friend and I rode our bikes to Tower Records. There it was right when you walked in the door with all the other new releases. The album cover jumped out at me.It is still my favorite cover of all time. Wait ?? What is this guy on the back of the album doing ? He’s completely bent over backwards with the coolest platform shoes i had ever seen. I had no idea when i got home and dropped the needle on Van Halen’s debut album what it was going to do to me.
Hearing the opening song Runnin’ with the Devil was mind blowing. This singer can scream like I’d never heard before.I couldn’t turn the stereo up loud enough. This is Amazing !! Then Eruption comes on and i can even describe what happened.Thats the Greatest guitar jam I’d ever heard. Then the song I new from the radio You Really Got Me. It sounded even better on my home stereo. I was hooked !!
I listened to the album day and night. I looked at the album cover and sleeve a million times. It was like all the other albums and songs i heard on the radio didn’t matter anymore. Van Halen was my band !!
That summer i got my first job. I got my first sports car a 75 Chevy Camaro, i got a girlfriend and Van Halen was the the sound track to my youth.

Its taken me a long time to gather my thought on Neil Peart. Growing up in the 70’s and 80’s every guitar player wanted to play like Eddie Van Halen and every drummer wanted to play like Neil. We couldn’t !! They are both world-class musicians and all of us were just learning to play.
I thinks it’s the liner notes on Permanent Waves the band thanks Malibu Grand Prix. Which was an arcade that also had go-cart racing. My best friend worked there we hangout there all the time.So the day Rush played in Fresno, Ca we ditched school and hung out at MGP all day.Knowing in our heart of hearts that Neil,Alex and Geddy were going to show up. It didn’t happen !!
That night i saw Rush play for the first time and they were AMAZING !!
Years later i moved to Los Angeles to further my music career. I was fortunate enough to study with Fred Gruber for six years. (That an entirely different story) Fred taught everyone.Steve Smith (Journey) Max Weinberg (Bruce Springsteen) and of course Neil. I never met Neil in person. However one night Neil called Fred when i was taking my lesson.I got to speak with him briefly and told him about the Malibu Grand Prix story. In true Neil fashion he didn’t say anything,he just laughed.
R.I.P. Professor

I saw Eddie Money and The Cars/Ric Ocasek in there prime. They were Amazing !!
Rockstars were bigger than life in the 70’s & 80’s
Eddie was cool as hell and it didn’t matter what kind of music you were into everybody loved The cars.
The Money Man’s second album (my favorite) titled Life For The Taking. That you did !!

This Tuesday November 27th Stone & Steel on 95.1 KVCM will be spinning some Burnin’ tunes on there Outlaws of Rock Show. For those of you in the Los Angeles area tune in between 4:00-6:00pm pacific standard time.

I loved that song on Foreigner 4. Me and my friends use to play it on the juke box at Me-n-ed’s pizza. I remember thinking i hope one day my music will be on the juke box.
As of Friday September 1st my music is on every AMI juke box in the continental U.S. Alaska and Puerto Rico. I’d like to go back to that pizza joint next to my old high school and get a large mushroom and olive pizza and listen to……..me.

Time is moving so fast.I’d love to make a new record !! However that seems impossible right now.My Corvette got totaled a couple weeks ago. I’m just waiting to see what happens next.

Tune in tonight Monday July 24th at 7:00pm Pacific time to hear James Rosh from Pop Roxx Radio interview Billy Keane. He will be talking about the upcoming record and taking your phone in questions.
http://poproxxradio.com

I sold my youth for $275.00
Over the last few days I sold all my CD’s back to a couple used record stores.I haven’t listened to a CD in at least 3 years. I listen to everything on Spotify.It’s the best ten bucks I spend a month.It was a weird feeling to let them go. The world has changed. Maybe I’m having a hard time changing with it.

Time is flying !!  I can’t believe its already April. I’ve been to Vegas a few times to write with Mark. Also been writing a lot by myself. Hope to play all the songs for the producer in June. Then start recording in summer.Will see what happens…

The NAMM show was a lot of fun.Saw a lot of old friends,made some new ones. I would love to buy a Gibson Hummingbird.
Going to Vegas to write songs with Mark tomorrow.
Nial has been really busy with “LIFE’ hope we can get back to writing songs soon.