I graduated from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with an Electrical Engineering degree.  After moving to Greenville, S.C., I worked as a consultant but continued to pursue my love of music.  I started playing pedal steel guitar when I was 13 years old, and began playing in clubs when I was only 15.  My last two years at UNCC, I worked in a supper club 5 nights a week and also played on a weekly TV show on WBTS/Charlotte.  I was very fortunate to have had great support and understanding from my parents.  Daddy played guitar and Momma and Johnny loved to sing.  As a family, we had a true appreciation of the joy music can bring.  But my Dad knew about struggles in making music a career, and in his great wisdom, encouraged me to embrace academics at all cost.  He would always say, "No one can take your education away from you once you have that diploma."  And for that, I am forever grateful.

As I said earlier, I began my engineering career in Greenville, S.C., working with a consulting firm. I had the good fortune of going directly into a group within the electrical department that dealt with instrumentation and controls. In the late 70’s, I was recruited by Simons Engineering and moved to Atlanta continuing my work in process control.

It wasn’t before too long I got the bug to go into sales; technical sales. Starting my sales career with Jamesbury Valves (of Worchester, Mass.), I learned a lot about dealing with the different "classical personality types". And I also learned how the corporate games are played when you have a successful year -- your quota for the next year is booted right through the roof! After selling valves I decided to stay with selling products and services that were more related to my electrical and process background. And it seems it has paid off over the years having met some great people and worked for some really good companies.

Life is good!