I wanted to be many different things when I was young - a cowboy, a train engineer, an illustrator, a writer, a filmmaker, and then finally when I was a teenager, a musician. When I was about seven years old I first heard Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)" on the radio in the car. That chorus of rebellion and epic guitar solo over a funky beat is my first memory of true intimate connection with music.
I started to ask for Pink Floyd CDs for my birthday and Christmas presents, and the first one I got was The Wall. It would become my most listened to and favorite album of all time. Eventually I began to ask for The Wall movie DVD but was never allowed because of the brief nudity. One time I threw a fit in a Hollywood Video because I couldn't rent it. The cover art in the rental stores eluded me for years, but eventually I was able to download the movie on Limewire or Kazaa.
I fell in love with every frame of that film when I finally saw it. Because in it I saw something that nothing else in the world had shown me - honesty. I knew the "adult world" was lying to me about many things, and here was Roger Waters telling this kid about the straight up facts of life. Not to say that I immediately understood all of the words, statements and concepts at such a young age, but the visual storytelling helped make sense of it all. Another film that really tickled my fancy when I was very young because it had been rerun on television a lot in the 1990s was Maximum Overdrive, which features an all AC/DC soundtrack some of which was originally composed for the film. The first AC/DC album I ever owned was a Who Made Who CD, the official soundtrack for Maximum Overdrive. I remember my mother buying it for me and listening to it many times so vividly.
When I was fourteen, I picked up guitar and saw the film Easy Rider, which really broadened my horizons and has always been a huge inspiration for me. That film featured great rock 'n' roll, along with some country influenced music. This was the time I started really getting into late 1960s country rock like Creedence Clearwater Revival and The Byrds.
A few years later, my hair was long and I began writing and recording original music and went on to discover more obscure hippie-country from the early 1970s like New Riders of the Purple Sage and Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen. A few years after that, I went on to fall in love with the all time greatest country bands like Ernest Tubb, Roger Miller, Del Reeves, and Charlie Walker. From there I wanted to write and sing country music, and the Rebel Edsel name was born.
