Q Give me a little history of your local music career.
A I was a drummer in a band in the beginning. But with the band drama, we had all these gigs booked on the shelf and the bass player walked out. So I figured I could sing a little better than a backup singer, and I started doing it on my own.
I happened to move to Delaware and was just getting started and going to open mics. The former owner at Smithers gave me a chance and it started going really well with a guitar and singing.
Q What happened to Blind Inside?
A We played together for about three or four years, but the band had been around for a while. The bass player joined another band; we just kind of ended up going doing an acoustic route.
I had been doing soloing all along, so it wasn’t some big dramatic blowup. Everything moved in another direction. We’re all still friends. I enjoyed it, and I’m still doing some gigs with Jimmy [James] as a percussionist.
Q What did you learn from that experience?
A I’m a little older, I’m married, so the band lifestyle doesn’t really appeal to me as much. I love how it’s worked out in my life. Music has been able to maintain a part in my life.
Q What music do people love to hear?
A I think I could be 90 and play “Margaritaville” and people would love it. Also, you could have a horrible night and whip out “Sweet Caroline” and all of a sudden everybody’s singing along.
But I like to do some things that people don’t expect, like “Human Nature” by Michael Jackson.
I’m really just interested in entertaining people with songs they already know. When you’re out having drinks with friends, you don’t care about the guy with the guitar’s originals. You think you care about the guy’s originals, but you don’t, you want to sing along and hear something you know.
That’s the whole joy of playing music: I’m not the guy who’s going to play 5 million originals. We like to play songs that you hear on the radio, we call them bar songs.
Q How is the solo experience different from being in a band?
A I always tried to react to the crowd, and I’ve always enjoyed seeing people singing along because I picked the song they wanted to hear. But as a soloist, I don’t have to check with anybody before paying a song. I just have to look at the crowd and think to myself and play whatever. I can be more improvisational. Even when Jimmy’s playing on the bongos it’s the same, we just play.
