Nahh, just kidding, I always listened to music with my dad, heard him play live shows since I was 5. He also played around the house, one day I asked him to teach me how to play.

He showed me the G, C, and D major chords, and said if I really wanted to learn I would figure out the rest. I learned all the major chords, but was still having some trouble changing chords. Then he showed me how to walk in and out of chords, which allowed time to set my fingers for the next chord. It also called for single notes, which I thought was like playing lead. Dad taught me a lot of cool stuff, and I'm still adding stuff in my tutorial that was inspired by him.

I got a little off the subject, I guess I knew I really wanted to pick when I sat in at my first jam session. These guys knew hundreds of songs, and I was playing along with them. I started learning to sing songs myself, and sang several at the next jam session with all of dad's friends.

The next thing I did was sit down with dad's record collection, the first song I learned to pick was "Wildwood flower" By Mother Maybelle Carter. After that it was Doc, and Merle Watson, and when I heard Tony Rice I was picking up all kinds of hot licks to play at jam sessions.

Since then music has been my vacation from the real world, a release of all the tension of everyday life. I started writing songs at age 14, and performing at a square dance every Saturday night. Joined several bands, and eventually started my own.

To this day there's nothing like performing for a crowd of people, and hot women. Of course that was part of the reason, but definitely not the only reason.

JD