Enough about me, let’s talk about my new book…OK, maybe another time.

I have been fortunate enough to have worked with and known some of the greatest artists of all time.  A lot of them I am proud to call friends.  I look forward to working with many more over the next few decades.  

Yes, we are talking in decades. Since its plural, that’s 10 year blocks strung together…. Think about how far we have come in technology during those decades.  In 1986 I had a very large bag phone. You remember those truck batteries with a brick attached.  Now I’m involved with a company working on cutting edge interactive systems the size of a current cell phone.

I was involved in internet radio, in the mid 90’s, before most people had the internet.  We were among the first pioneers at that little station in AZ.  I’ll have pictures up as soon as I can find the old phone book that they are stashed in.

Growing up my family was not wealthy so I started working early in life and quickly learned the value of a dollar.  I worked my way through college switching to a profession that could pay my tuition.  I’ve been to, and now occasionally speak, at colleges and universities.

I’m an old gear head and love to work on cars.  That’s a skill I learned on my grandfathers farm.  If it broke you fixed it.  I didn’t even know that there were professional mechanics until I was a teenager.  I thought everyone fixed their own stuff.

At the other end of the family I was fortunate enough to watch the original family that I call the masters of race marketing.  The Earnhardt farm was a short drive from my aunt and uncles farm in NC.  During the 1970’s I got to go watch Earnhardt Sr. as a local racer.  His dad was, is and always will be a legend as well as the first to make a living doing what he loved to do, race.  There was no doubt they were stars!

Years later my other uncle, a GM executive, was responsible for the GM sponsorship end of the Sr. Car.  I was lucky enough to watch the modern day evolution of the sport of NASCAR from the inside.    

So how did I start in the Entertainment industry?  I have always loved to write, there’s a quick way to be poor, and went as far as a 5 year newspaper column.  I couldn’t afford a photographer so I started taking my own pictures.  Then I started taking other peoples pictures.  Eventually some local bands hired me to take their pictures and compile their press kits.

A couple of venues found my name on the kits and since I knew the bands I started booking shows.  I’ve produced shows from a few people to the hundreds of thousands, televised to millions.  I am honored to have been given the opportunity to work with Senators, Congressmen and a US President. I have a Congressional certificate of merit and several committee awards.

The most touching are the children’s shows.  The show that comes to mind first was in Texas in 2005.  I was preparing for a children’s show during Month of the Military child.  One of the civilian volunteers brought me to the Elementary School.  One of the boys, about 8, had come in to school late and apologized to his teacher because he was having a bad day.  Both of his parents were deployed and had been killed the night before.

For many years, in conjunction with food banks, we did concerts and CD sales to raise food for needy families.  Afterwards it was long hard days delivering the food.  On one of the trips we came across a little girl whose family lived in a dumpster.  We were delivering food to low income housing when she approached us and asked if we had any more.  According to her she was the princess of the dumpster and taught me the proper way to live in a dumpster.  In case I ever needed to know.  

The terminally ill children, with organizations like “Kids N Cancer” are in a class all there own.  The love and appreciation for every day, because every day is truly a gift, is amazing!  Every year we go camping, fishing; sing camp fire songs etc… it is their time to be kids, away from chemo, Doctors, Hospitals, etc…thanks again to Nashville Recording Artist Keith Cochran for volunteering his time one more time.

I wrote a script that earned a Rocky Mountain Emmy Award for a children’s grief camp in the late 1990’s.

You can still find some of my “artistic” photos and writing in books in book stores and private collections.  I received a Pulitzer Prize nomination for photo journalism in the late 1990’s for “A Day in the Life of the Homeless”.       

As an artist, ink and oils, I have had a few of my own art shows.  Thanks to some wonderful sponsors I went a lot further than my talent probably warranted.

In private business I hold interest in several companies ranging from Entertainment to the Restaurant industry.

I have a car habit and have recently, relative term, broken a horse habit.  I love fast, pretty thing; cars, horses, boats and planes. By nature I’m a type ‘A’ personality.   Many would say that is a huge understatement.

As a consultant, which is a noun for too old to move sound equipment in the heat all day… I am excited about the amount of work, and experience, I can bring to the table.