Biography

 

 

    It all started in 1811 when Franz (Ferencz) Liszt was born October 22, in Raiding, Hungary to a father who worked for the Esterhazy family, and who soon recognized his son's prodigious gifts. After studies with Czerny and Salieri in Vienna in 1821, Liszt quickly made a name as a piano virtuoso, performing in London and Paris. Here he lived from 1823 to 1835, becoming friends with literary figures and painters as well as with Berlioz and Chopin. These two composers along with Paganini, who he heard in 1831, were the primary influences in forming Lizst's character. Many years later branches of the Liszt family immigrated to America dropping the z from Liszt in order to better “blend” into their new homeland..(Infact Franz's father Adam changed the name from List to Liszt to add a Hungarian feel to the name)......but for me:  

 

Early high school was the beginning, listening to Deep Purple, Zepplin, Rainbow, and Allan Holdsworth; it wasn't long before I had gathered a few friends together to start one of the many bands that would play parties and school dances.

 

In 1980 my family moved to South Florida . This was the beginning of my professional music career and an introduction to the school of hard knocks. At an early age I had the opportunity to meet a lot of different people, including people in the local music scene.  I was soon jamming with different rock bands making a few bucks here and there until I met up with a group named “Shadowfax”.  Shadowfax needed a second guitarist and offered the position to me after a brief audition .  Shadowfax gave me the opportunity to expand my musical abilities and introduced me to a lot of Southern rock I had not experienced before; it also gave me the chance to play keyboards on several songs in our set which was a mix of southern rock and heavy metal. Time passed, and gig after gig I became frustrated that most of the other band members were satisfied in playing cover tunes and had no interest in writing original music, I had written some material and was eager to try it out ...... it was time to move on.   

   I gained a reputation as a guitarist with Shadowfax and found it easy to form a band on my own, and with a growing fan base I could always find gigs, so off I went.   The new band (Saterra) did well, playing gigs all over the South Florida club scene, gaining fans as we went. One night at a 99IZD Rock (West Palm Beach radio station) sponsored show I met Ralph Hampton (see intro) who seemed interested in the band and asked for some recorded material. Later, I stopped by to see Ralph at the station and dropped off a tape for him. He liked the tape and played some selections on his radio program for local musicians. Ralph told me later that he had the most positive reactions from the public he had ever had up to that time. 

 

"Saterra" continued to rock the area with club gigs and concerts until several members became very undependable.  It was time to disband and try again but this time it would truly be my own band, under the “LIST” banner. At this time I released a single of two songs (Forever & Lying Lady) that had the most commercial potential at that time and strongly promoted it in the area.  With local air play the single sold fairly well. The band List went on playing and paying dues until finally we got a break with an opportunity at the opening slot for a Molly Hatchet concert in Jacksonville, Fl. 

 We were the first of three bands to perform on the bill and of course we had no sound check of any kind and no sound engineer of our own, so needless to say we were not at our best but it was a great shot at promoting our band and we had a great time playing to a crowd of about 3500 people ( the concert ended up with about 10,000 people but most were just getting there when we started). After the show we met some fans and drove back home to start our regular schedule of club gigs. This also gave us the opportunity for more shows with the Hatchet boys later.

 

   

                          Molly Hatchet 1981 & 82 passes 

    1984 brought even more opportunity as I left South Florida for the Atlanta area to tour with several bands highlighted by a tour of the east coast with Sidewinder, a band based out of North Carolina. Others included Carla Dean (with a hit single “Running” on the 96rock Home Cookin’ album in 1986), and ShotGunn Rose, a fun band that opened for Rhett Forrester (ex-Riot), Fort Knox, and Riggs (ex- Pat Travers).

 In 1986 I had the fortune to meet Glenn Hughes (Trapeze, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, and HTP) at Cheshire Sound Studios in Atlanta. Glenn was there recording vocal tracks for Tony Iommi’s Seventh Star Album (later to be released as a Black Sabbath album). Glenn and I hit it off right away and I remember one night we went out to Baker Street (an Atlanta night club) to party and ended up jamming with Robin Zander of Cheap Trick.  I had a great time. I was and still am a huge Glenn Hughes fan and I treasure the few months I hung out with him before he went out on his short tour with Black Sabbath. Glenn is a very successful artist doing his own thing, check out his site:

Glenn Hughes

 

1987 to 1991 was spent doing some studio work and playing with various local North Georgia bands on the weekends. After 1991 I took a break playing professionally  playing only occasionally at a party or jamming with friends, including Keith Burns of Trick Pony,  Jeff Arrington of Doug Stone's Band,   Dennis Chastain of Joe Diffy's Band, and Ron Kimble in Atlanta.

As of now I am in the process of recording and playing live with Atomic Wizard and Soundmynd in the Southeast.  I am still a huge fan of 70's & 80's Rock music and  enjoy Progressive Rock /Neo-classical music.

                                                                                                

               Thank you for the visit........ KEEP ROCK ALIVE....ROCK ON!!!!!!