Music I am pictured at left doing my favorite thing - playing a big power chord on my 1952 Les Paul. Some people would think, since I'm a computer programmer, that I must be really into MIDI music. They would be wrong. Computers have their place, but I say if you're going to make music with a computer you might as well make love with a computer (which I guess some people do, and I guess it's just as well they can't procreate). I go for the old school. None of my gear is of more recent vintage than 1969 and the music I love is firmly rooted in old-style rock'n'roll, power pop, blues, etc. It should be really simple and preferably with big, loud drums. In fact, some of my friends wonder why I'm a guitar player and not a drummer. The answer is, I prefer to stand in front of the drummer and feel the hair raise up on the back of my neck every time he kicks the bass drum into gear. Ride the wave, surf the beat. Yeah!
Why am I smiling? 'Cause I'm playing my favorite guitar of course!

Music has always been in my life - I started playing the piano at about age 3 because there was one around the house, and always wrote songs along with stories and poems as a kid. But things really took off when I started playing guitar at 12 - and a good thing too. I hated school and my new hometown of Los Angeles. Rock'n'roll really did save my soul.

Here I am at right, at about age 13, struggling to learn some song or other by playing the record over and over again. It wasn't long before I acquired my first electric guitar and became the biggest Rolling Stones fanatic that ever walked the earth. Keith Richards was (and remains) my hero. I also loved the Beatles, the Who, the Byrds and especially the Animals. By the time I'd been playing a few years, at 15, I figured I was ready to start a band. My parents didn't exactly agree, and didn't like the idea of me hanging around with a bunch of older guys, but I was fairly incorrigible by that time. I had a few older girlfriends who had cars, and I used to just tell my parents I was staying over at one of their houses. Little did they know I was sneaking off to play with a bunch of unruly rock musicians.

Playing the Whisky-A-Go-Go in Hollywood, February 1982, age 18

I never did like Los Angeles, but from about 1977-83 there really was a great music scene there and it was a great time and place for a teenager like me to get started. Many of the unruly rock musicians I hung around with turned out to be quite well known, and I also got to meet many of my heroes - even Keith Richards! - who came through town to play or make records. Rock'n'roll to me has never been about rebellion - it's just pure joy. Sometimes it's about pain or anger but it has a way of taking those things in life that suck and making them into OK, and part of what makes you alive. Click here to hear an early recording of mine!

Watch this space! Upcoming features will include:

• Stories about music and musicians, including photos and some interviews

• The Drum Page! - waxing eloquent about drums, and drummers

• The Keith Richards Page, including The Night Lee Hung Out At a Stones Rehearsal!

• Some Talented Friends - info and links to some of my friends who may not be famous, but should be

• Links to other sites featuring favorite bands and musicians