It was February 8th 1979 and I was 18, when I made the final payment on my first drum set. It was that day, 40 years ago, that I seriously entered music life.
I had taken a stab at guitar 6 years earlier, but a combination of hard to play guitars and our single parent family being very poor, led to not playing very long.
As a 18 year, old just starting out, I figured I would never do anything with music as I had started “too late”. I imagined playing drums would always be a fun hobby.
Well a year later I was playing shows in a band and 40 years later it is still all I do.
Now to be fair, I did go to very extreme lengths to start playing the drums. I quit high school and, with a bus ticket and $20 in my pocket, boarded a bus for Calgary. It was my sole intention to get a job in the, then booming oil, economy and buy a drum set.
I shared a room with a friend, started work that Monday (a simpler time) and worked to buy a set of drums.
That job evaporated but I went on U.I. (which I now consider artist development funding) took some lessons, practiced like mad and moved back to Ontario where I started playing in bands
Now I won’t bore you with the niggly details but fast forward mode tells you that the kid who thought he was too old to do anything with drums went on to play bass, piano and guitar. Went on to play on recording, release a number of records, tapes and CDs. That he got a music degree and taught privately and opened a music school and recording studio.