I was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the fifth of six children. In 1959, my family moved to Denver, and when I was eleven years old, I saw the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. That did it for me; I had to have a guitar. After a lot of begging, my dad went to a pawnshop in Denver and bought me a flattop box. He thought it would sit in a corner somewhere; it did not. Not long after, I was approached by one of the better bands, the 13th Street Exit, who asked me to play bass for them.