I first got interested in playing guitar when I was 11 or 12 years old. My sister’s boyfriend had an acoustic guitar and showed me how to play one little riff. I learned all of the surfing hits like “Wipeout” and “Pipeline.” My favorite band at the time was The Beach Boys.

Then, The Beatles came along. Soon, I formed my own band, “The 007’s” (I was a big James Bond fan back then). I played lead guitar and sang. There was a drummer, a rhythm guitarist, and an electric piano player. We did all covers of top 40 songs of the day – The Beatles, The Who, The Animals, etc. That band morphed over time into the band “Happiness” – two guitars, bass, and drums. At that time, we started to write some of our songs in addition to Beatles covers and the like.

That band played mostly parties, but we did play one short set after hours at the Hollywood night club, The Hullabaloo. It turns out that The Yellow Paiges and The Palace Guard also played that night. Terry Rae, future drummer of The Hollywood Stars, and Michael Rummans, future bassist of The Hollywood Stars, were both playing that night! I don’t recall having met either one that night, however.

That band broke up, and I went off to college where I began to play local clubs in the Newport Beach area as a folk singer. During that time I began to write a lot of songs and tried (in vain) to get Warner Bros. to be my publisher. Their advice was – get a band!

I played off and on at that time playing some big concerts with a band called “Little Billy and the Astros” with my former bandmate, Steve Goddard (Little Billy), and future Oingo Boingo guitarist, Steve Bartek. A friend from high school approached me in 1972 to audition for the heavy metal band, “Adrian.” I ultimately did join that band that had huge ramifications on my future.