Born 1/17/1954, Cheyenne, WY. Dad was in the service teaching typing WWII. Moved from there to Sioux City, IA soon after and then back to Norfolk, NE where Pops grew up and we would too. Had a splendid childhood and had the run of the neighborhood. Everyone in the area was involved in all kinds of games and recreation. tag, kickball, kick the can, soccer, baseball, football, hide and seek, mumbly peg, army, cops and robbers, cowboys and indians, we flew kites, had bows and arrows, BB guns, made sling shots, did a little fishing now and then, went camping, hiking, dug some great caves, built seven tree houses in the same tree, NPPD just kept tearing them down. See the picture of the seventh in the photo gallery. We hunted, trapped, had our own neighborhood olympics and the most impressive was the neighborhood circus. It ran for quite a few years and raised money for the kids in town with down syndrome at the Opportunity Center. The Carlisle Circus brought in 350 some people the last time it performed. Got interested in music mainly because my grandfather was a life long organist and pianist in Omaha. He had a Steinway semi grand piano at his home that just had the most beautiful tones. I've since ended up with it and had it restrung and re-pegged. It's awesome. Another person of interest was our music teacher Mrs. Lueben. She taught us about rthym and how to sing. Then there was Larry Mackenstadt starting in 5th grade and through 8th. During this time mother rounded up a clarinet for band and Mr. Grossman gave us a first class education of band and esp. woodwinds. I shifted to tenor sax in High School and Mr. Schoemaker had me actually working at it. I gave up band when there was no option but to also be in the marching band. When I was about fifteen a friend and I went out to Valentine NE to hay for a month. We returned with $350 in our pockets and I bought my first albums. Grand Funk, Grand Funk Railroad and Closer to Home, Crow by Crow, Neil Young's, After the Gold Rush, and Crosby Stills and Nash, Deja Vu. Now I was hooked. I wanted to learn to play the guitar. I was lucky to have several friends that were also learning to play. We'd get together and practice the same two chord for half an hour at a time. Then move on to two more. At times we might have ten or twelve of us just a jammin away. I stay in touch with several of them to this day and they also are writing and recording some of their stuff. After getting a few chords down and finally purchasing an electric guitar I met Jimmy Whitehurst at a local tavern. He said he had a band that was to be practicing in Stanton, a small town ten miles away. He invited me over and we all hit it off. It was a blast being part of a group. We called ourselves Blue Steel. I personally tried to convince them that the Doorknobs would be better but it didn't fly. We did some gigs around the area, mostly taverns and a couple of proms. There was one time we arrived got set up and went and found out that we had no mikes. One of our roadies drove back to Stanton from Battle Creek, about 20 miles to retrieve them. The first set was instrumental. Fortunately we had some songs we wrote that could be passed off as such. So at the time, I was 19 or 20 that the band gave it up, I'll tell you that story later, I continued to play and write mostly by myself as time would permit. I was working full time at father's wholesale candy and tobacco firm. I then met Gigi and I was spending quite a little time with her. Thoughts of having a career as a song writer seemed farther away. At the time I believed that in order to make it, you'd have to hit the road in support of your material. As time went on I continued working full time, got married and then we started having little ones. We had three, a boy and two girls, and it kept us mighty busy. But then there were still those thoughts about making music. The kids grew up, went to college, got married and now are having there own little ones. It dawned on me over the years while I was dreaming about having a part in the music business that it could actually be attained simply by continuing to write songs and then soliciting publishers and hope the heck someone likes your work and finds someone to take it to the street, or on the road as they say and tour and all of that stuff while I keep writing. Well I haven't scored a hit that way yet, and I'm still working that angle, but I believe that the DSF, DSF Too, The Boogyman's Lair, Rare For and 39:20 albums could sooth that middle of the road, rock, country, or just good ole party mood type background listening craving. We are still After it after all these years