I began playing piano at age 6 and then drums at age 10.  I performed in numerous orchestra, band, and musical theater productions throughout my school years.  It seems that music has always been a part of my life even from an early age growing up listening to everything from Beethoven to Belafonte, Motown to Rock & Roll,  Big Band to Jazz, Folk music to Techno-Pop, The Beatles to Blue-eyed Soul, Eagles to ELP, Deep Purple to Sly & Family Stone.  So many genres, bands, styles ... and I liked them all.

JUST US

At age 16 while living in Cleveland, I was recruited by John Goodworth to play drums for the St. Adalbert's Girls Choir, aka Just Us.  A Godspell-like youth choir from the Cleveland suburb of Berea, Just Us was booked multiple times on local Cleveland TV variety shows, including The Jerry Lewis Telethon, Polka Varieties, and The Gene Carroll Show.

The High School GARAGE BAND with no name 

At age 17, my friends and I decided to start a rock band.  Since we were all drummers, we decided that our buddy Dave should be the drummer since he had the coolest kit: a Ludwig double-tom clear acrylic set!  I switched to keyboards/vox and my friend Carl brought his guitar.  We recruited Tommy for lead guitar work and Jim for bass.  We were the epitome of a garage band with our cobbled up equipment and less than polished sound.  I played a Farfisa Combo organ through John Goodworth's borrowed Leslie.  We only played 2 times: once in Dave's basement for his New Year's Eve party and lastly in my parents' living room for my High School graduation party [ LOL emoji goes here].  While we were far from great, our playlist was great:  Paranoid (Black Sabbath), Sweet Lorraine & Easy Livin' (Uriah Heep), Into The Sun (Grand Funk), Rocky Mountain Way (Joe Walsh), Evil Ways (Santana), China Grove (Doobie Bros).  We thought we were rock stars!

SOLO and Coffehouses  

After high school, I attended college at The University of Toledo ( little did I know I would end up in the Toledo area for the next 40+ years).  While at U of Toledo, I performed solo piano at several campus coffee house concerts and also performed at the piano bar at The Southwyck Lounge in Toledo.   It was the 70's so I played a steady diet of The Beatles, Billy Joel, and Elton John.

Around 1985, after seeing Scott Shaull and Danny Overton perform, I knew I wanted to play in a band with them someday.  We started Miniture Buzzurd and eventually recruited Dave Foreman from Findlay, OH.   The bar owner at our very 1st show misspelled our name on the marquee and of course, much like the story of Lynyrd Skynyrd's name, we decided to keep it misspelled.  We played 70/80's rock and were a solid band and a good draw in NW Ohio from Toledo area to Bowling Green to Lima.  At our peak, we had an extended, busy schedule: 6 weeks of Th,Fri,Sat nights, then 1 week off.  We were together until summer 1990.  Buzzurd reunions have taken place, with Mark Stears taking the bass duties allowing Scott to focus on acoustic and rhythm guitar.  As it turned out, I ended up performing with each of these 4 guys in future bands.

Musicians:  
Classic line-up:  Scott Shaull (vox/bass/acousitic/guitar), Danny Overton (drums), Dave Foreman (vox/lead guitar), Stevie (vox/keys)
other members: Honorary Buzzurd Mark Stears (bass), Tom Jaqua (original guitarist), Russ Wangler (guitar). 

Incredible musicianship in this band which included Bryce Barnes, Jeff Kollman, Kevin Chown, and Tommy Kollman (RIP).   I worked with Edwin Dare as a session musician from 1990-1994, providing keyboard support both in the studio and for live performances.  Along with their numerous headlining performances, ED also opened for many national acts including Dream Theater, Ronnie Montrose, Lita Ford, and Foreigner.