No, not really.  I figured he would be very unimpressed.  You know kids these days!  I think that I will wait until he asks.  I’m really proud of him.  (photo by Michael T. Regan)

What are doing professionally these days?  

I am the DJ on a radio show called Loud n Local that airs on Sundays night on WYSP 94.1.  The music is loud, and raw.  I am not interested in going backwards.  I’m crazy!  I move forward in weird directions.

You have always had a great reputation as a live performer.  Who did you admire as a kid?

My hero is George Thorogood.  I saw him on the Main Line after the release of his first album.  I have never seen someone so in control of the moment.  I always admired Dr. Harmonica, Mark Keanelly, from Rocket 88.  He had no weaknesses.  I think that I picked up on his humor and the little things he used to say on stage.  I think Mark and George grew up in the same area.  They certainly learned their act from the same sources.

Bad to the Bone video

I read in a 1997 interview in “Out and About  Magazine” and you sounded bitter.  You called the music industry a “Corporate and Contrived Snakepit.”  How do you reflect on your experiences in 2002?

You know, maybe I was bitter for a while.  By the way, that interview had a great quote, he said my hair went from “Brian Adams to Fester Addams.”  I love that!  The music business is very competitive.  A lot of people want to be in it, even if it means just hanging around music.  I really think the music “industry” is at odds with the music.  The executives are trying to bottle lightening, which is silly.  They are trying to make a science out of an art.  The people in charge really don’t have interesting taste.  I got really lucky with my experience as a musician.  I was famous.  People remember! 

I have it hanging right behind me on the wall.  Yeah, after a show in Boston our truck with a lot of guitars, amps, and other equipment was stolen.  I give credit to a woman named Michelle Peicuch at Cornerstone.  She called every pawn shop in Boston trying to find our stuff.  I actually paid $35 to get it back.  The guy in the pawn shop said it had all these scratches and signatures on it.   

    Tattooed Love Boys video

Your Guild guitar was signed by "legends" like Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders.  Tell me about Chrissie Hynde and her infamous eyeliner?

Yeah, her famous eyeliner.  We opened up for the “new” Pretenders, without the drummer Martin Chambers, in Williamsport, PA.  The first thing Chrissie said to me when we walked backstage was, “The band is weird isn’t it?”  I think she could tell that I liked the classic Pretenders.  In her British accent she kept saying that Eddie Van Halen should get a “Mohikan.”  I think she meant to say Mohawk!  Chrissie was eating a big ole, juicy apple.  She gave me a big kiss on the cheek when I left.   

You were highly critical of your performance 1989 American Music Awards .  Is that true?

I felt like our band was amateurish as hell.  We were mediocre.  I felt like an imposter and eventually everyone was going to find out that I wasn’t really good.  There is a lot of pride at stake.  The thought of the fall was scary.    

I always thought your list of musical influences was real diverse.  Why jazz and Charlie Parker?  

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Jazz is the NBA of musicianship.  The guys are real virtuosos…..Remember that everything other than the chord structure and tempo is improvised.  My first guitar teacher pointed me to jazz.  When I was young my brother would play a Rolling Stones record and push me to learn the riff.  I didn’t understand!  It seemed so simple compared to jazz.