Born: 8/19/56
Resides in: Benicia, CA
Favorite Food: Chicken Wings (Hot)
Favorite Book: “Journey To The Center of the Earth”
Favorite Song: “In The Mood” Glenn Miller (grew up listening to it from my parents collection and it kinda just stuck there.)
Relationship Status/Children: married with one daughter (16)
How long have you lived in Benicia? Ten years.
What did you listen to as a teenager? The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Pink Floyd, Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Moody Blues, various 60’s oldies.
What do you listen to now? Basically the same thing with the occasional latest radio hits that my daughter listens to.
What's the first music you remember hearing? Earl Bostic, Jo Stafford, Glenn Miller
Who influenced your music? The big band horn sound of the 40’s
When did you know you wanted to be a musician? When I realized that I wasn’t cut out to be a policeman or fireman that my father had always pushed me towards.
Where's your favorite place to go listen to music in Benicia? The intimate clubs like The Rellik or First Street Café always have pretty good musicians.
What was your best moment on stage? The Fillmore, San Francisco, with Greg Allman performing in front of friends on stage alongside one of the legends of rock was pretty fun!
What do you do in your spare time? Golf in the summer and skiing in the winter.
What brought you to Benicia? Growing up in the Bay Area I always liked Benicia. Great place to raise a kid. We were finally able to afford it just in time for our daughter to start kindergarten.
How did you make your first dollar as a professional musician? When I was a sophomore in high school and playing in the band & orchestra I was recruited by some older hippie-looking guys to do a rock/blues gig at The Boat House by the airport in Oakland. They had charts so it wasn’t bad until they told me I had to do a solo. I was panicking until the drummer chuckled and said “All they can do is laugh at you.” That somehow lightened the moment. I got through it somehow and made $10. I was obviously on my way to the top!
Where can we see you perform? “House of Floyd” does theatres and large venues in California quite often. Early next year we will be performing at Yoshi’s in S.F. and at The Hoffman Auditorium in Walnut Creek among others. Visit our web site for complete schedule www.houseofloyd.com.
You went from touring with Gregg Allman to being a mail carrier in Napa. That couldn't have been easy to go from the perks of a rock tour to walking a postal route and deliver the mail! Yeah, that was probably one of the harder things to go through. I had three solid years with Gregg Allman, and when it was over it was a shock. Working as a mailman, basically out of desperation, brought me back to reality very quickly. I can remember my first few days carrying mail in the dark in an unfamiliar neighborhood and in the rain, trying to find mail boxes, and just wanting to go home. Oh, the humanity! I have all the respect in the world for postal carriers and what they have to go through, a lot of it that the public doesn’t get to see, but I knew I wouldn’t last long. I did that for 2 years and it definitely gave me the incentive to keep pursuing music as my avenue in life.
What prompted you to leave the post office to starting a Pink Floyd tribute band? Basically in the two years that I was a mailman, I was bitten by at least three dogs, had my hand mangled by a cat that made a living waiting for the mail to come through the slot in the door; had two or three scraped knees and torn pants from uneven sidewalks and quick getaways from loose canines and had my foot punctured from a nail sticking up in someone’s driveway. That prompted me!
How did you meet your wife? I was in a Top 40 band and we were auditioning singers. There were about twenty who came in and she was by far the best. We were married a year later.
How did Sheri end up singing with House of Floyd? When I started House of Floyd, Sheri was uninterested. I basically pressed her into service when one of our other singers bowed out. She did it as a favor for me but soon started to enjoy the music as much as I did. Now she gets all the standing ovations!
Is your daughter, Rachel, interested in following her parents' footsteps into the music business? Rachel loves music but I don’t think she wants to do it for a living. She’s seen all the ups and downs that it can bring. My guess is that she will probably pursue something that is a little more stable. She’s a lot smarter than me!
You recently toured India with House of Floyd. India changes people. How were you, Sheri and your daughter affected by the experience? Touring India was a wonderful experience. We probably wouldn’t have gone there if we hadn’t been given this opportunity through music, so we were lucky. We were treated like royalty but still got to experience everything that is India. The poverty is everywhere and it is very humbling and sad to see, but the beauty of the people overshadows it all. They have a different attitude. They are happy no matter what their situation. We experienced some of the craziest, most out of control traffic in the streets you can imagine, with constant tailgating, horn blowing, cows, dogs, motorbikes, trucks and pedestrians all making five lanes out of two. There was not one bit of road rage, yelling or hand gesturing, ever! The people seem to carry with them an inner peace and respect for others that the rest of the world could learn from.
Why Pink Floyd music? From the Syd Barrett era to “Dark Side of The Moon,” “The Wall” and more there are five decades of music that Pink Floyd produced, touching on every mood and life experience. We do it because we love the music and the joy it brings to people who come to hear it, to either re-live their past or are introduced to it for the first time. Not to me
