I have had a love for music as far back as I can remember. My Grandmother raised me and at age 6 I was going to a private Catholic school and remember taking my first few guitar lessons from a Sister. I played drums throughout middle school and got back into guitar in high school. I started off listening to "Oldies But Goodies" around my Father whenever I was with him. So my very early exposure to music would be singers and groups like The Four Tops, Elvis, The Everly Brothers, Little Eva, Phil Phillips and Buddy Holly. But I can never get my Father's favorite song out of my head "In the Still of the Night" by The Five Satins. He'd sing along with it and that song just etched itself into my brain.

There's Grandma now. Being raised by her was wonderful. She would always sing songs in Yugoslavian or Hungarian. She was from Yugoslavia and got married to my Hungarian Grandfather and moved to Hungary. Her Brothers were all popular musicians in european groups. She even had some of their records and I enjoyed listening to the old style Hungarian music. My Grandma and I would always watch shows like Lawrence Welk, Hee Haw, The Porter Wagoner show and Sha-Na-Na. But I got super excited when my favorite show The Partridge Family came on. It was all about music as a child.

1975 at age at age 9 in fourth grade I remember going to a department store with Grandma and what did I see? A record that was eye stunning and shocking to me. It was Kiss' first record on vinyl. It just sort of jumped out at me. I was a kid and their faces were so cool. Kinda like clowns or something that was just cool to a 9 year old. I asked her if I could buy it. And from that day forward I never stopped. I bought every one of their records as new ones were released. By the time I hit 7th grade I was completely wanting to learn how to really play rock guitar and drums. All four of the Kiss members had equal coolness and respect in my eyes. But as a guitarist, I suppose Ace Frehley was always my personal favorite.

By the time I was in high school, I had finally decided to go with guitar 100%. I was a decent drummer and I even picked up a little Bass, Piano & Harmonica along the way, but guitar was just comfortable for me. My very first band was me on guitar, my little Brother Nathan on guitar and my life long friend Steve Macy on drums. We never did anything big or became a full band. Just fun jamming together. Throughout high school another very close friend of mine, Lee was showing me how to play rock guitar. By the time I got out of high school I started a band with two more friends of mine. That band consisted of me on guitar, my friend Jim on bass and one of my best friends in life David Brown on drums. Still never really did anything but had hours and hours of fun playing together in Jim's Parents' Shed. Then shortly after graduating from high school, myself, my friednd Lee, Jim, Dean and John started a band and we actually played a high school concert for some friends at a local school here in Spokane. I was simply the rhythm guitarist, but I got my taste of a stage show and fell in love!

During the Summer of 1983 I attended a Billy Graham Crusade in Spokane, WA. and gave my heart to Jesus. At that point in my life I was somewhat empty, not knowing what to do with music anymore. I started growing slowly in my faith. A couple years went by and in 1985 I met Gary Rose through another mutual friend James Peters. We called my old drummer Dean and got together for a jam session. We were all new Christians and loved music. This was it. We actually wrote songs and I sang. We had no singer at the start. So I just kinda volunteered. I grew up always listening to Grandma and Dad singing and I sang along, so it was somewhat of a natural thing to me. I wasn't great as a vocalist, but I could at least sing in tune and hold my notes. That was the birth of Amethyst.