“Music can heal a soul. That’s what happened to me. I grew up the youngest of 5, we didn’t have a
lot, but we had love. Music was my escape, my own world. I remember sharing a room with 2
brothers. Jimmy would have all of these albums and he would say, ‘Mike, you have to listen to this
one, check out this band.’ He would play it and I thought that it was really cool. I would sit and
listen to those albums for hours--the lyrics, and the melody. I would listen to each member of the
band separately. Each member had their own song…I would listen to the drums and hear that
song, and then listen to the bass and hear another one. I always gravitated to the vocals because
I was a singer. At that young, I wasn’t a singer, but I sang all the time. Never thought I would end up
doing it for a living. All I knew was that I loved it.”
“Music can bring you back…it can take you to a place. Happy, sad--you can remember being
somewhere from a song.”
“When I was in high school they had an elective where you could learn guitar. I went right for that. I
think that was the 10th grade, and by the time I graduated, I received an award for outstanding
achievement in guitar. The feeling I got from that experience is the feeling I get every night when I
play--it is amazing. To give something and get something back at the same time is amazing. I met
my buddy MIKE POULIN in high school. He had a guitar that one of his friends left in his house for
years. Mike Poulin said to me, ‘I’ll sell it to you for 10 bucks.’ It wasn’t even his guitar to sell, but it
was my first guitar and it was amazing.”
“Back then you wanted a guitar. That’s how you got the women. Learn three keys and you could
play about 150 songs.”