This whole thing - my life as a drummer, musician, songwriter - really started back somewhere around the Summer of 1971.  My very favourite aunt, Aunt Sheila - actually she is my Mom's cousin, but I called her Aunt - was soon to be leaving for somewhere far away. Europe rings a bell. She was going to be a cardiac nurse, or a trans-Atlantic stewardess. Or was she joining the Air Force? I can't really remember. Whatever it was, I remember it all sounding very jet-setting and glamorous. 
And I was heart broken.
Aunt Sheila was the first adult that talked to me like a person. She asked me questions and was genuinely interested in my answers. She always let me hang around with her when she was at our backyard pool, taking in the sun, drinking Fresca, listening to the little AM radio that always sat next to her ashtray. We talked about the music that we heard, what groups were cool, what songs we liked. We would sing along with all theTop 40 hits.   I was a pudgy little 11 year old kid, and to me, she was this very sexy, very glamorous bikini clad adult who actually seemed to like hanging out with me.  "A crush", you say? Absolutely! Probably the genesis of the "Sexy Girl plus Rock and Roll equals Happiness" equation in my mind. I dug her, she was leaving, and I was bummed. But something important was to come of this little angst-filled period of my life. The Most Important Thing  - Ever.

Aunt Sheila gave me her record player and her entire collection of records.

Turns out, Aunt Sheila just couldn't fit all her clothes AND her records in her suitcase. So who better to "keep an eye" on her records while she was gone than your's truly? There were 50 or 60 albums to be listened to, consumed, critiqued, loved and hated, 50 or 60 album covers to be poured over untill every detail was memorized. And I listend to them all.
But it was these four, especially, that hit me in both the head & the heart, filling me with an excitement that I had never felt before..........
Hard Day's Night by The Beatles;  Fool on the Hill by Sergio Mendez and Brazil 66; STAND! by Sly & the Family Stone; and in the celophane wrapper, unopened, untouched, unplayed - LED ZEPPELIN IV.

And so, with these new feelings, this new-found excitement, a question was starting to form in my mind........

"Could I somehow do this?"

From the beginning, playing drums has been synonymous with being in a band. Ever since I first heard "YOU WANTED THE BEST, & YOU GOT THE BEST! THE HOTTEST BAND IN THE WORLD - KISS!" at a friends house in the summer of '74, I knew that music was a team sport, one I was quickly obsessed with. I had to find guys who thought the same way I did. The hunt was on. I thought of not much else. Looking back, my high school years were spent doing just that (and not much else, if you look at my report cards!) In these shots: MANZO, my first power trio, Sayreville block dance, summer 1976. Danie Manzo, Jim Sorensen & I, Zeppelin to Lou Reed to BTO. Another version of the same band, this time with Mitch Pedersen on vocals, Sayreville High gym, spring 1978. These early gigs introduced me to guys I would work with, on & off, for the next 25 years. Danie & I were to go on & form MODERN LEISURE, an art rock instrumental band in later years, while Mitch & I worked in Jersey Home Grown together.

While I don't have many shots of The Atlantic City Expressway, this band is a really important part of my musical development, and for a number of reasons. First, it was an out-and-out miracle that ten high-school guys got together and got anything accomplished at all, let alone putting three one-hour sets of music together. Teamwork. Second, it exposed me to the amazing feeling of driving a band with horns. Of note: Our lead trumpet, Al Chez, has been a part of David Letterman's band for the past 10 years. And you might recognize the singer - Jon Bongiovi.......

Billed as "New Jersey's Guitar Army", Jersey Home Grown was my first full-time working club band. Allman Brothers to ZZ Top, "Freebird" to "Green Grass & High Tides", we played hard & partied the same way. I really learned what a being a part of a rhythm section meant with bass player Ken Walus by my side... With everyone's lives moving away from the "full time band" head, we split in early 1983. These shots are from our last gig at our home away from home, Bob Garvey's Emmett's Inn, Jamesburg, NJ. Note the shiney, new Tama Imperialstar kit - my first brand-new set. Big tubs: 12" - 13" - 15" - 18" toms, and dual 24" kicks... sheesh!!