OurStage

I grew up in Bad Axe, Michigan, a small town of 3000 in the "Thumb Area" of Michigan's mitten. I began playing drums in 5th grade school band. At home I had a wooden framed rubber pad to practice my rudiments on at first. That Christmas I got my first snare drum and stand and I was off to the races. I practiced whenever I had a spare moment.
I got my first drum set the summer between 7th & 8th grade, a beat-up Ludwig set. A year later I sold it and bought a Starlight jazz combo set.
I played in school band all the way through to graduation. I played in the concert band, marching band, pep band, and competed at "Solo & Ensemble Festivals" where you are judged and awarded medals accordingly. I even wrote my own drum solos and one drum duet, all of which received the highest rating, a 1.
Throughout my 4 years of high school I also played 1 to 3 times a week in a wedding/bar band, playing everything from polkas and waltz's to old standards and pop/rock hits.
After high school I attended Lake Superior State College and tried out for the stage band drumming position and got it and maintained it all 4 years I was in college. I graduated with a B.S. in Biological Science and a minor in Chemistry in 1978. In 1978 and 1979 I played in a rock-n-roll cover band traveling all over Michigan's upper penninsula. We called ourselves "Mad Hatter" and all lived in Sault Ste. Marie. In 1980 and 1981 I hooked up with the two guitar playing brothers from Mad Hatter who were living down in Livonia, and began playing rock-n-roll covers in bar's around Detroit with a new name - Emerald City.
Then in 1986 I began playing again and formed another 4-piece rock-n-roll band we called "Savage Attitude", doing covers and our own originals (for the first time), around Coldwater, MI near the Indiana border. In the summer of 1987 we became a trio called "Thin Ice" and began working on originals only. We recorded some demo tracks at a local studio but that's as far as we got because of my divorce and subsequent move to Lansing, MI in 1989.
I have since relocated again to Grand Haven, MI but didn't play drums until 1999 when my youngest son, (who'd been playing bass a couple of years), goaded me into playing with him. Then we started jamming with my best friend, Kevin Urso, who had just broke up with the drummer he was playing with. We played together for a while and my son has since gone his own way.
We picked up Kevin's old bass player, Bob Franke, and we became "What's Next?!".
In the fall of 2005 we added Henri Creed to the band on keyboards, guitar and vocals and have continued to write and perform our own original material. We have won 2 of 4 battle-of-the-bands competitions we entered in western Michigan (and took 2nd place twice) and now have some of our material here on this site.
Besides playing drums I am a music listening and collecting addict born of the of the classic rock era, owning about 800 albums and another 1500 CD's.
I am a poet and lyricist, responsible for over half of the lyrics in our song list.
Music is and has always been one of the main driving forces in my life. I'm looking forward to hearing and judging what's new out there.
LONG LIVE ROCK-N-ROLL!!!!!