“I give 150 percent to the audience--just to, hopefully, make their night a little better. Be it a
song or a request, I cannot mail it in. Some nights I wish I could, I just don’t. It’s about the music
and it’s not about me. The stories and smiles keep me going. Music should convey emotion. If
you can connect with someone emotionally you have done your job. It’s been over 30 years that I
have been playing. I think our first paying gig was in 1990 at the OLD WORTHEN HOUSE (EDGAR
ALLAN POE, JACK KEROUAC) in Lowell, MA. We called ourselves MIKE AND MIKE.”
“We were playing occasionally as “Mike and Mike”, and I was working full time, as well as some
Saturdays. I was a heavy equipment mechanic at the time and we could only really get to the
equipment when it wasn’t in use, usually on Sundays. I didn’t like the fact that I had to work
every Saturday. It was too much and I was playing out more and more. I asked to change from
mechanic to operator with the same company, and they allowed me to do that. The company
then decided to shut their doors for 9 months and come back as a new company; they wanted to
start fresh. During that down time, I started picking up more shows and realized that I could
pick up four nights a week steadily doing something that I love. I also discovered that I was
making even more money playing. When the company called me back, I said, ‘Thank you, I am
all set