Growing up on a farm may not seem to be the best way to begin a music career, but the small town of West Newton, just outside of Pittsburgh, PA is where it all started for me. At age 4, I took a few piano lessons and quickly turned my interest to drumming by age 5. My first real drum kit was given to me by my very supportive parents when I turned 7. For years I was basically self taught, playing along with records of great bands such as Rush, AC/DC, Ozzy, Van Halen, Zeppelin, Kiss and Deep Purple. This was my first experience learning song structures and developing my timing. The first time I actually performed with bands was in junior high; I joined the symphonic, marching, jazz, and concert bands. When I was 15, I met a local guitar player and joined my first rock band. We played locally in the Pittsburgh area and after my first gig, I knew I wanted to be a professional musician for the rest of my life. Soon after, the realization hit that I needed to further my education and go to an area that provided more opportunity to be a pro. So after graduating high school, the guitar player from my band and I moved to Hollywood, CA to attend Musicians Institute.

The whole experience of moving to LA was a huge awakening, and I learned a lot quickly. At P.I.T., I learned many different styles that I had never played before, such as Latin, Jazz, funk, and hand percussion. Attending M.I. had opened many doors for me by allowing me to play with many musicians from around the world and I also learned to sight read music. My instructors there included Ralph Humphrey, Joe Poccaro, Toss Panos, Richie Garcia, and current head of P.I.T., Tim Pedersen. Six months in I met the guitar player Craig Small. He had seen me play at a performance class and asked if I’d be interested in joining his band, 9.0. I did join, and a year after I graduated we were signed to an independent label called Shrapnel Records. That was my first major recording experience. We made one CD and played a lot of shows on the West Coast.

I went on to record with several other guitar greats on Shrapnel Records, which gave me a lot of recording experience to do sessions. In 1992, I was asked to teach at P.I.T. and design a rock curriculum. I taught there for 9 years, developing important instructional skills, which led to me doing drum clinics all over the world. I now have an instructional DVD out now that is based on my instruction at M.I. and ideas I've developed throught the years. It is distributed through Hal Leonard Publishing and is available at all major music stores. In 1994, I got the gig with Jake E. Lee (Ozzy Osbourne, Badlands). That was my first big official tour. I went on to play and record with various national acts soon after such as The Nixons, Arcade and Wicked Alliance.

In 1996 I joined Perfect World Entertainment, which is a talent company that provides musical entertainment to clubs, corporate events, tv shows, even the Superbowl. This gave me great experience playing to a click track and I played up to 5 times a week for months at a time. Around the end of '96, I got involved with a band called Freak Power Ticket. We all contributed to the writing of the music and direction of the band. We performed many shows in Los Angeles and made one CD.

I had been doing many sessions and in 1997, I got the opportunity to record a few songs with one of my childhood heroes, the legendary David Lee Roth. From that session, he asked me to join the DLR Band. I was a member for 8 years, touring the world several times and recording two full length CD's. It was amazing to open our show every night with "Hot For Teacher" with Diamond Dave after practicing to Van Halen songs in my bedroom growing up! Some other high-lights of the DLR gig were when we got to perform with the legendary Boston Pops Orchestra and we did a big co-headlining tour with Sammy Hagar and DLR in 2002. It was an amazing experience and I learned a lot!

I performed at Sabian Live and the NAMM Show 2005 with bass legend Billy Sheehan and guitar great Toshi Hiketa. That night on the bill was Robert and Dean DeLeo of Stone Temple Pilots. After the show they approached me about a new group they were starting with Richard Patrick of Filter. In June 2005 we got together as a band, soon to be named Army Of Anyone, and began rehearsing and recording our debut record. It will be released in November of 2006. Army Of Anyone is my priority now and I'm looking foward to everyone hearing this music and playing for you live!

I've had the opportunity to work with many great bands and artists in my career, here are some:
David Lee Roth, Robert and Dean DeLeo (STP), Richard Patrick (Filter, NIN), Billy Sheehan (DLR, Mr. Big, Steve Vai), The Nixons, Jake E. Lee (Ozzy, Badlands... my first tour in '94 "Wicked Alliance"), Hideous Sun Demons, John 5 (Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie), James LoMenzo (Black Label Society, Megadeth), Doug Aldrich, George Lynch, Rafael Moreira (Pink, Christina Aguilera), Slash (G 'n R, Velvet Revolver), Seal, Kirk Hammett (Metallica), Zakk Wylde (Ozzy, BLS), Toshi Hiketa (DLR, Hideous Sun Demons), Todd Jensen (Alice Cooper, DLR), Tracy G (Dio, WWIII), Driven, Zac Maloy, Edgar Winter, Goaded, Freak Power Ticket, Coma, Wicked Alliance, Matt Kramer (Coma, Saigon Kick), Medicine Wheel, The Howling Iguanas, Tony Fredianelli (Third Eye Blind), Toby Knapp (Onward), Arcade (w/ Stephen Pearcy, I toured with them in '95), Ricky Wolking (Edgewater, Nixons), Brian Young (DLR), Michael Lee Firkins, Mandy Lion (WW III, Wicked Alliance), Scott Bush (Dolt, Nixons), Keisuke Nishimoto (HSD Japan, Kelly Simonz), Jeff Scott Soto (Yngwie, Soul Sirkus), Sean Dailey, Darren Housholder, The Boston Pops Orchestra, various Perfect World Entertainment bands including Metal Shop, Boogie Knights, Anthem, Spazmatics, and Atomic Doggs.

To be continued...