Your Sound Choice
Bios and stories about the artists we feature
In Part 1 of Drummers Past, I went all the way back to the beginning of my lifelong love affair with drums and drumming. The idea was to compile a listing of as many of the drummers I could remember playing with and/or meeting since the drum bug hit me back in 1963. We […]
After reading Mark Volman’s biography (Happy Forever … as chronicled in two parts – FTV: The Turtles 3-4-26 and Flo & Eddie 4-1-26 (it wasn’t a typical autobiography as 90 percent of it was contributed by his colleagues, friends, and family)), I was inspired to take a ‘wayback machine’ trip to examine my encounters […]
When Guitar World Editor-in-Chief Damian Fanelli got an email inquiring if his magazine would be interested in doing an interview with legendary Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, he wasn’t about to say ‘no’. In his Woodshed column from GW Vol 47, NO. 5. (May 2026), he noted how many times Keef’s name and/or image […]
During my Junior High / Senior High years in Marquette, the frats and sororities at Northern Michigan University would have an annual spring bash called Greek Week. I can’t say how long this went on or if it continues to this day, but I remember it mostly for the festival’s finale that was held […]
A lot of folks say they became fans of Steppenwolf after hearing Born To Be Wild in the movie Easy Rider. The movie was released in the United States in July of 1969. By then, I had already been playing their eponymous debut album for a year (and thus Born To Be Wild) as […]
Ken & Mike, WNMU TV 13 Studio – taking publicity shots for Sledgehammer I just found out that my old bass playing electronic wizard buddy Mike Kesti passed away at his home in Oroville, CA on April 1, 2026. My condolences to his family – I attached the included photo of us from 1975 to […]
Flo & Eddie are actually four different people who co-existed in two different bands. There is an entire tail twisting story behind the name so I am going to do my best to unravel it for you. Two of the people known as Flo & Eddie are actually Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan from […]
According to an article entitled The Class of 1986 in Guitar World magazine (Vol 47 Issue 3 March 2026), ‘86 was a pivotal year for iconic albums. In this issue, GW Editor-in-Chief Damian Fanelli recounted some of the recent losses (deaths) the music world has already had this year and then he cut to […]
The Turtles almost didn’t happen. Call it fate or kismet or whatever, but one of the top selling bands of the late 1960s were DOA and then they weren’t (more on this in a bit). When vocalist Mark Voman passed away in September of 2025, it prompted me to find a copy of his […]
Let me set the record straight once and for all. Jethro Tull was a real person. He was an 18th Century agriculturist known for inventing the seed drill. Tull’s name was suggested to band leader Ian Anderson by their manager when they moved from the north of England to London. Gigs were hard to […]