To escape the monotony of a prototypical suburban life on Long Island, NY, I taught himself the guitar at the age of 9, playing along to Beatle albums, dreaming of bigger things and losing myself in the wonders of music.

I began taking formal lessons at age 10, but never learned to actually read music. Because of my innate ability to "hear" the notes on the page as my instructor played them, it was a simple way to fool my teacher that I was actually "reading", but I quickly learned that I was only fooling myself. By age 11, I was writing songs and playing in a band with a group of other musically inclined friends.

I abandoned formal guitar lessons for ear training courses and sang in the school choir. To further my instinctive musical ability, I took music theory courses. While my first love has always been the versatility of the guitar, I also played Tuba in the marching band, bass in the jazz ensemble and learned some piano by age 17.

I became a professional musician at the tender age of 12 when my first band played restaurant grand openings, backyard parties and carnivals in and around Levittown. This pre-pubescent band soon became "The Underdogs" and with fake ID in hand my cohorts and I were playing out-of-state colleges, bars and clubs while still in high school.