
I was born in St. John's Hospital in Oxnard, California (Ventura County), at straight-up noon on September 24, 1951. My father was a Big Band, Swing, and Dixieland drummer and, like most musicians, he worked a lackluster day job in order to support his family. He did many things during his lifetime, including working as a telephone lineman, a TV repairman, an electrician at Sperry, a maintenance man, and a general Jack-of-all-Trades, which fit, since his name was Jack. His mother had been an opera singer in Chicago and his father grew up traveling the vaudeville circuit as a song-and-dance child star. Opera and vaudeville. That pretty much tells you all you need to know about my personality...