at that point.
That had to be something special to be able to have three generations up there playing together. I’m glad you got that experience ,that was wonderful. It's a great memory to have and it was always a great learning experience to have family that's been in the business. They can tell me what I should be doing, and more importantly tell me what I shouldn’t be doing. (Laughs)
Very important. Besides your family who would you say were your primary musical influences growing up? Coming up I was always spoon fed Allman Brothers Band from a real early age, so a lot of Allman Brothers and real early Lynyrd Skynyrd. So Allen Collins and Ed King and Duane Allman and Dickey Betts were like my first real favorite guitar players. And then Ste- vie Ray [Vaughan] and [Jimi] Hendrix and Robin Trower.
Oh yeah, wow. And then on the other side of the coin, my dad was leaving me with his collection of blues, so I loved Robert Johnson, Willie Dixon, Albert King, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, and Freddie King.
Somewhere along the line you must have gotten ahold of some R&B too, be- cause it comes out in your music. (Laughs) When I discovered James Brown, that really took ahold of me, the same way the Allman Brothers did. Just as strong an im- pression, and the same with Ray Charles and Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, and Sam and Dave. Because at that time I wasn’t singing, I was just playing but I was trying to gain musical influence wherever I could find it. I was lis- tening to something just to hear the guitar player, but I’d also be trying to take the vocal runs that they were doing and try to apply to the guitar you know?
Yeah, yeah. Janis Joplin was a big example of that and James Dore from Robin Trower’s Trio, his vo- cals. Over time I realized that those vocalists kind of inadvertently influenced my vocals later on down the line. You know?
Oh yeah, yeah. I tell you, I was a huge Robin Trower fan back in high school, I’m glad to hear you say that. I haven’t heard too many people talk about his group lately. They’re out doing it again man, I was happy to see it.
I think they came to Greenville one time, I was away when they did. Yeah, he came to the Handlebar man.
I would have loved to have seen that, of course I was in Florida at the time, I was travelling all over the place. I was too young to get in at the time too.
Oh my gosh, how old are you now? 20? Yeah, I guess I’m still to young but it ain’t there anymore. They let me slide into the Handlebar about the time I got to be sixteen, they let me come in with the big X’s on my hand and what not. (Laughs)
Wow, so tell me about your band. Are the band members from Greenville as well, or from other places? Well you know, you’re from the same town so you know we all kinda generalize it and say Greenville. So we’ve got one cat from down in Simpsonville and me and my trumpet player live down in Dunean and my drummer is from Clemson and our bass player is origi- nally from Columbia but he’s been living in Greenville most of his life and our saxophone player is from Asheville, North Carolina which is our second home really.
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