type of music that I just dove headfirst, feetfirst all the way into. Through that experience I met a lot of really cool musicians in Atlanta I never would have met if I’d never gone to my first Grateful Dead show. There were an abundance of guitar players and bass players and it was really cool. We were all interested in this type of music where you jam so decided to give it a shot. We started having jams, at first that’s all it was, we’d have a party and we’d set up in the backyard and play. It was usually at a house on Roswell road in North Atlanta. some deadhead friends had a house with a big backyard they were renting, and we’d set up and have a party and play. And that was the beginning of what became (we weren’t even doing it for money) we called it The Dread- ful Grapes, and that’s because one time at some Grateful Dead show Bill Graham introduced the band as the Dreadful Grapes. We took that name and ran with it. That lasted for maybe a year or so and that sort of splintered apart. But the bass player and I stayed together and started playing with some other guitar players that were also deadheads and called it The Grapes. That was the start of a band that we still play together once every couple of years now. And we went whole- heartedly with that in 1986. That’s what we wanted to do. We wanted to make our living doing nothing but playing music so that was my first touring experience. Once we were able to go on the road, we started out taking our personal cars. We’d throw all the gear in the pickup trucks and once we saw we could do that we bought a van. Once we started riding in the van and bought an equipment truck. We rolled for a number of years like that. We toured constantly throughout the early 90s. I eventually left the band in ‘93 and the band continued touring after I left. They con- tinued touring as a single drummer band. We still get together and play and it’s a wonderful group of people. They are my brothers and sec- ond family for sure.


Share your musical history with us. Once we did the grapes, it officially ended in ‘97 but quickly reformed in a way, not full time but more part time. In ‘98 we decided to just started getting together as a reunion show and everyone who was ever in the band is actually in the band now. So, it’s an 8-person rock band. It’s a big


Grapes, 2020.


huge freight train of a sound when we do get to- gether. Out of The Grapes we had an offshoot in the 2000s, myself, the second drummer, and rhythm guitar player started a band called Way- side Riders. We did a little bit of road work and made 1 album had some fun and wrote a bunch of material. We sort of took that as far as we could go. I was also in an Allman brothers tribute band called Revival, myself and Benji Shanks that plays with us. He and I are the added touring guys with Blackberry smoke. Benji and I had an Allman Brothers tribute band with another local guitar player, who I played in his original band, Lefty Williams. I played with The Lefty Williams Band for about two years. In 2018 I started doing shows with Blackberry Smoke and that’s where I’m at now, being a touring musician with those guys and its been quite a ride


I know you and I share some history if you feel lead share that part of your story. . Through my young adult life, I had an addiction problem. I became addicted to heroin, one of those things that you never think you would do, and I certainly never thought I would. Just choices I made along the way. That’s where I ended up and I put myself into bad situations with the law and just separated me from my fam- ily and friends. It was a dark time in my life. Even though good things were going on, at the same time those choices took away from those good times. It was rough. It still affects my life to this day. Not in a bad way, but all those memories are still there. It’s not always fun to remember stuff that you’ve done, but I used my faith in God


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68