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I got a lot of support from my family… a lot
more than any of my other friends who
decided to go into music. Their parents
thought that it was a waste of time or a crazy
way to make a living. I feel lucky that I got
some good support from my family.
- Your first memory of singing or playing an
instrument?
I took guitar lessons when I was 8 years old,
and I thought it was the worst thing that I
had ever seen in my life LOL! To me, learning
guitar was very difficult, but soon afterwards
I was able to have a drum lesson and I found
that drums came very naturally and were the
right instrument for me.
- I read you are a drummer too. Did you ever
think to just play drums, rather than vocals?
Why drums?
Yes, when I first started playing drums, I
thought that was going to be my primary
instrument. I took on vocals just to fill a spot
in our band, but we never found a better
singer, so I was stuck. I find that to be a real
advantage now obviously in my career.
- When you realized that you would play with
Savatage what were your emotions?
I had very realistic emotions at the time that I
found out I would play with Savatage. This
was because I had always been a big fan of
the band, and I had rehearsed and sang
Savatage songs as part of my vocal training
when I was younger.
- Did it change your life?
Yes, it absolutely changed my life because it
gave me a start to a music career.
- The first show you played with them and
your feelings about it?
The first show was in St. Petersburg, Florida
at a small club that no longer exists. It was
amazing because it was a local show in the
hometown of the band and there were a lot
of fans that were very interested in checking
out the new vocalist for the band and how
that would translate into a live performance.
- How is the experience with Savatage
connected with TSO? What kind of
experience is playing with TSO?
There are many similarities between
Savatage and TSO obviously because they
come from the same musical personnel and
influence.
- Reading your bio, you left Savatage for
family reasons. I saw your two daughters in
your Facebook profile, so how important is
your family in your life? Music and family.
Did they fit or was it a struggle with the role
of father or husband or fiance?
Family is of the utmost importance in my life.
Everything starts with family. I think it’s very
important to have family support if you’re in
the music business, and what you‘ll find is
some people will support you and some
people won‘t. I took time off early in my
career when I had very young children to
make sure that I provided for them and I was
there to form the very important
relationships and bonds that children require.
When my kids got older, I was able to do
everything I wanted to with my career.
- Once you started to play with Circle II Circle
you kept working with your “old” world and
then from second album with a brand new
band. How would you define Circle II Circle?
Circle II Circle has always been an outlet for
me to explore new music and music that I
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