About Guy

My Life as a Minor League Rock and Roll Star

People have been trying to figure out exactly who I am and what I do for a long time, and I guess I’ve never made it especially easy for them to do so.

I’m a musician.

That’s how I identify myself, and everything else grew out of that. Do I make music, write songs, sing, play guitar and bass, and lead my band? Yes. Have I produced records, radio programs, television series, fake festivals and books? Those too, and several of them are still active parts of what I’m doing this week. I find all of it interesting and often fascinating, and I love the feeling that comes with making something out of nothing, then getting to show it off and share it with others.

I was born in New Jersey, raised in Texas, and grew up on the road, on the stages of bars and music venues, in the apartments of strippers and dope dealers, and in recording studios and radio stations. I had loose plans for a certain kind of career, of course, but careers have a way of ignoring plans and doing whatever they feel like. I’ve usually had several things going on at once, sometimes because they belonged together and sometimes because three projects seemed no more unreasonable than one. Music has always been at the center, and most of the other skills and endeavors came from the need to employ those things to spread the music around without spending money I didn’t have.

That meant I had to learn how to make posters, operate recording equipment, shoot and edit video, do radio, put on events, publish things and whatever else the next project required. Once I had those skills, I kept using them to create more works, help other people create theirs, and find different ways to tell the stories around the music. Something I experienced in radio might affect a musical arrangement for the band, while something I discovered making films might help me construct an essay that later became part of a book. I think about something, do it, analyze what worked, change it, do more of it, and eventually decide when it is finished.

The road kept widening

Music led to travel, films, radio, television, books and an archive that now reaches across decades.

Ideas are easy. Everybody has them. I love making something out of nothing. After a gig, we might be sitting around drinking and smoking when somebody said, ‘You know what somebody ought to do?’ Everybody would agree it was a great idea, the girls would eventually stop knocking on the dressing-room door, everybody would go home and forget about it, and I would still be thinking about it the next morning. Before long I’d be making phone calls, finding musicians, borrowing equipment, booking a room or figuring out how to make the whole thing happen with money I didn’t have. Some projects last for years, some last for one night, and some probably should have been stopped during the first phone call. But even the bad ones usually produce a song, a story, a friendship or at least a useful warning.

I was often a little ahead of the curve, not because I was a genius, but because I never had to wait for permission.

I once measured success the way the music business told me to measure it, but I stopped doing that pretty early. Nonetheless, I would have happily accepted a platinum record and a million dollars, and I remain available should anyone wish to correct those omissions. Somewhere along the way, success became more about being happy, being satisfied with the work, and being able to continue doing it. By that standard, I’m the luckiest boy in the world.

There’s only one of me, but I’ve occupied a lot of different chairs and worn a lot of different hats.

I guess this is the part where I’m supposed to tell you who I’ve played with, opened for, worked for, produced, filmed, written about or simply happened to cross paths with over the years. Sorting out which was which would take another book, so here’s the quick version: Carolyn Wonderland, Ray Charles, Eric Johnson, Roy Buchanan, Opie Hendrix, Ted Nugent, Jimmy Reed, The Romantics, Billy Joe Shaver, Duran Duran, Chuck Berry, Jerry Jeff Walker, Michael Knust, The Grass Roots, David Lindley and El Rayo-X, Calvin Owens, Kinky Friedman, The Monkees, ZZ Top, Todd Rundgren, Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, Rush, Dr. Hook, Vince Bell, Blaze Foley, U2, Fever Tree, Lionel Hampton, MC5, Golden Earring, The Moving Sidewalks, Little Feat, Spooky Tooth, John Lee Hooker, Lightnin’ Hopkins and The Drifters. Just being around some of those people for a few minutes could be an education in itself.

I’m still writing, recording, producing, doing radio, making music videos and putting books together. I’m also doing archival work, trying to preserve recordings and films made on formats created by people who apparently never expected anyone to want them thirty years later.

This website is brand new and will be growing throughout 2026 and 2027. Please stop by again from time to time as we continue adding archival material, stories, fun features, new books and music by me and some of my favorite collaborators, videos, and plenty of new merch. My career has never stood still for very long, and I don't expect this website to, either.

I encourage everyone to follow their own path, but feel free to click one of these buttons if you’d like to follow one of mine.