How a $20 Guitar Changed A Little Boys Life

I would like to share a story about a little boy whose life was forever changed by a $20 guitar.

In 1965 I was born on September 28th as the second child to a wonderful mother and father. To this day I still remember the story of my older sister Libby, crying as dad brought home a picture of me to show her, “Dad he looks like a monkey” yes that’s a true story and still makes me smile. I can’t remember anything of course till I was about 5 years old, so I will start this story there. As a child I was very skinny, sickly and had sever asthma. I can still remember mom and dad having to take me for rides in the car late a night with the windows down trying to help me get air to breath and try to calm me down. It seemed like I was sick more days than not. Having such wonderful parents and grandparents I always had loving hands rubbing my hair, telling me they loved me and making me feel better. As the years started to add up I became very aware of being overly skinny and that the other kids seemed to have it together more. School and peers could be rather cruel, I was picked on every day and had a very tough time making friends.

The one thing I could count on when coming home from school after having such a bad day, was the sound of music playing through the house and love waiting at the door for me, “I miss you mom and dad”.

Mom was an incredible piano player and my dad could sing like no other and there was always some kind of music happening at our house. Dad and mom had a southern gospel group called the “Skylanders” and they would practice at our house all the time. I can remember coming in to the living room and seeing this big “Kustom” bass amp taller than me and just staring at it in amazement.

After a few more birthdays, I am still skinny and the asthma hasn’t let up yet, nor the bullying at school, but the love at home just keeps growing. I starting begging mom and dad for a guitar and I think they probably thought that in a couple of days I would be begging for a model car or hot wheels set and that this would pass, well it didn’t. So fast forward, Christmas morning, me and my two sisters are seeing what Santa brought and no guitar, I was sad but didn’t say anything because my parents were the most giving parents a child could have, and even at 10 years old I understood that. So we are done opening gifts and eating cookies, when dad looks over at me and says, “what is that behind the piano?”

I go over and pull out this big square box and dad says open it up and lets see who its for. I started ripping paper like a mad man! I finally got it opened and there it was, my first guitar, I started crying and hugging mom and dad, I couldn’t believe it! That one $20 acoustic guitar changed my life forever.

After that Christmas, me and that guitar were inseparable, after 10 years on this planet, I finally had a best friend. A couple of years went by and I became pretty good at playing my guitar and mom and dad thought I should join the school band and talked me into choosing an instrument to learn. I chose the trombone. So after a few weeks of hitting the girls in front of me with the slide it was apparent this wasn’t for me so we traded the trombone for a new guitar. Mom and dad didn’t have a lot of money but they did believe in me, so we went to Dunhams Music and to my shock mom and dad bought me a Fender acoustic guitar! It was $300 dollars and a real instrument, and there again I cried and hugged them. My focus was so driven on that guitar, that my mind was not on being skinny, having asthma or being bullied but just being the best guitar player I could be.

Now it’s 1979 and I am starting high school, needless to say I was scared, my nerves were causing stomach problems and that fear of being accepted hit hard. So my first year was pretty tough but I had my music and my best friend “Fender.” I took my guitar to school with me and when the lunch bell would ring I would sneak off to the auditorium and play some. One day while playing in the auditorium a couple girls came in and sat down to watch me, and they seemed to enjoy it. They came over and started talking to me like I was cool! Listen, cool was not how I viewed myself but after that day I held my head high for the first time in my life.

The 10th grade proved to be the start of a new life change, me and some guys from school started a rock band! We were not very good, but what a joy and an experience. We would play party’s sometimes but mostly we would play in our garages and living rooms, “poor parents.” Never the less it gave me confidence and purpose. I started having more and more friends, my asthma was almost all but gone, and for the first time in 10 years of school I enjoyed going.

1983, I am now a senior and the past couple of years have been pretty good at school. Great friends, new guitar and big dreams. I was working at Ingles supermarket as a bag boy and was playing in a band called “Greystone”, we were getting pretty good. One night while working at the store, the guys from the band came in and said they got a call from a club that needed a band that night. I said guy’s I can’t I have to work, they asked me to talk to the manager, so I did and he said NO! So what does a responsible 17 year old do? I Quit. Well after that night my life forever changed once more. These guys became my best friends and we were inseparable. We were playing all the time, we became the house band at a couple of clubs in town and felt it was all coming together.

Later that summer we went to do a demo at a home studio in town. I had never been in a studio before but was very excited. We walked in and wow! I had never seen such cool gear in my life. We finished that day cutting our demo and something inside me changed. I had always told my parents that I will make a living in music somehow, they were always supportive and never tried to discourage me.

That day was the start of my decision to pursue recording. I would take 2 cassette decks and wire them together to do my first double tracking of my guitar, that was so much fun and I was hooked!

I did this for a while and saved up enough money to buy a 4 track cassette recorder that I bought from Randy Hughes at Dunham’s music in Asheville NC, you would have thought I just bought an SSL Console and a 24 track machine! Didn’t even know what that was at the time :) but never the less I had a real recording system. I started laying down guitar parts, bass parts and bouncing them to an empty track so I could record more parts, I was a mad scientist! I started getting my musician friends to come over and we would record demos all day, it was a blast. I worked so many terrible jobs over the next few years and that helped me to solidify that music was all I wanted to do the rest of my life and make a living doing it.

One of the guys in my dads quartet decided that he wanted to help me out with my dream, and loaned me enough money to by an open reel Tascam 8 Track multi track tape machine and a DAT machine to mix down to, that was a turning point for me and my recording started actually sounding more like a record. I spent the next couple of years working hard to pay him back. Once again mom and dad being so gracious helped me build a little basement studio and I went on to recording a lot of local groups for money and working on my skills as an engineer. I started doing projects that required more tracks than I had, So I went to my older sister who was working in a bank at the time and asked her if she could help me get a loan. To my surprise she said she would co-sign for me, and I borrowed $25000 to upgrade my studio. She will never know how thankful I am for her decision to trust in me. I bought a 16 track machine, a recording console, outboard gear and everything I needed to be able to move on to the next step.

Eventually I teamed up with one of my musician friends and we rented a space in downtown Weaverville, NC and built, Beechwood Studio. Between my gear and my partners gear we had an honest to goodness recording studio. I recorded a ton of artists there for the next couple of years.

One day I get a call from Engineer Kevin Ward from Hear Here Studios in Asheville, NC and asked me if I wanted to come and work there, I was blown away but also my studio was still young and I had a partner, so I agreed to work part time. This was one of the biggest studios in town and I was honored. After about a year past they offered me a full time position and I decided to take it. Here I finally felt like I was part of something great! I was working on 2 inch 24 track machines and large format consoles and working with seasoned session players. I had to learn to read charts and be fast at punching and getting up sounds. In those days we were cutting 10 songs on Monday, cutting vocals on Tuesday and mixing on Wednesday, there was no time for goofing off! I started working with some of the top artists in the country and cutting real records. I was having the time of my life. After a couple of years I got offered the Chief Engineer position at the studio and we had moved from Asheville to Arden, NC and became what is now know as Crossroads Entertainment. I can’t believe how many incredible artists I have had the pleasure of working with. In my 27 years with Crossroads, I have worked with the likes of, Tony Rice, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, The Kingsmen, The McKameys, Ivan Parker, Balsam Range, John Cowan, Darin & Brooke Aldridge, Adam Steffey, The Grascals and The Lonesome River Band, just to name a few and the list goes on. I once even did a record for Medowlark Lemon of the famous Harlem Globetrotters! So needless to say my 27 years at Crossroads gave me so much experience and great times, I am forever grateful to my Crossroads family.

It is now 2020 and time for my new chapter to begin. I recently decided to build a recording studio next to my home in Candler NC, which at the time of this writing is under construction. God has been leading me this way for a while, and if one thing I’ve learned is to listen and do what He tells me. I have dedicated my life for the past 30 years to the art of making records and great music. Engineering is my passion and I hope to be doing this till the good Lord takes me away. The Lord has blessed me with a wonderful wife and two incredible step children who support me. I could not do this if it weren’t for my wonderful wife, Maria, who pushes me to follow the path the God has chosen for me. I am truly blessed beyond measure and cannot wait to see what 2021 holds for me and my family.

And Yes this is what a $20 guitar did for me!

Thank you Mom & Dad