I started playing professionally when I was 15 years old in a cover band in Denver called Ridge Top. We covered songs by Lynyrd Skynyrd, Loggins & Messina, Marshall Tucker and others. Now almost 50 years later, we are finishing a new FIREFALL record which consists of songs by Lynyrd Skynyrd, Loggins & Messina, Marshall Tucker, and other groups that FIREFALL toured with back in the mid-1970s. So it seems I’ve come full circle.

My first instrument was piano when I was 11 or 12 years old. I took up saxophone in sixth grade and also worked in a music store. Many parents brought in the flutes that their kids didn’t end up liking much, and suddenly the store had dozens of flutes for sale. I looked over all of them and bought the one I liked best. Saxophone and flutes have very similar fingerings. I was off and running!