Biography

Born in Greenville County, South Carolina near the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the area that is the cradle of old time and bluegrass music. I lived about 35 miles from where Earl Scruggs grew up and learned to play the banjo in Flint Hill, N.C. I later came to Michigan to go to college, eventually graduating from Michigan State as an Engineer, did some post grad work at the University of Michigan, and went to work for General Motors. I always wanted a banjo when I was a kid, but it just didn’t happen. But as fate would have it, I met Wayne Fairchild at work one day. Wayne was a machinist for GM but his real passion was building and playing the banjo. Somehow I convinced Wayne to help me build a five string banjo, and that was the beginning of my career as a musician and a luthier.