HISTORY: This is not really a bio, but more of an introduction.

   I started to show interest in the drums when I was ten, beating on everything in site yet having a groove my mom noticed.  If memory serves me correctly, either that year or the following year, I was given a single snare and then a very old white sparkle Slingerland kit.  I added anything and everything I could to that set to make them look as big as possible, you understand.  A Tama kit followed, which by the end of it's run had Tom sizes that were 6", 7"(a bongo in the same color of my kit), 8", 10", 12", 14", 15", 16" and 18" with a 22" kick that became two along the way, plus a full set of Octabons and a couple of smaller things which could have possibly even been two pots or pans!  Not kidding at all!  It used to take two hours to set up an hour to tear down!  Then I started playing in real band!.  With the drums being as big as or bigger than the stage, I look back at this and have a good laugh (and a hurt back).  

    My first paycheck came at the age of twelve.  That same year I started playing every Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights making $240 per week.  From age fourteen to fifteen, I was fortunate enough to join a show band that toured and played "Printers Alley" in Nashville.  The clubs on the "Alley" (which I loved) were The Embers, once for a showcase and Ronnie Proffet's Carousel, which is now The Blues Bar (I think that's what it's called).  Still a great place.  That's where I was playing when John Lennon was shot.  I cried like a baby and am not ashamed to say so. From there we did a showcase at Harrah's in Tahoe for an agent named Penny Mayo.  He got us in the Aladdin in Las Vegas.  We also did another showcase at the Palomino Club in Hollywood, CA, which was very cool.  Clint Eastwood had just filmed the movie there where he fights everybody.  Well, that could be just about any Eastwood movie, but this one had the monkey in it that shot people birds all the time!  While out to dinner one night I asked a guy if any bands were playing nearby, although knowing full well there was no way they were going to let a fourteen year old in. He said this new band Metallica was playing at a little place that night.  My, how time flies.   

    Okay, so I turn fifteen and am given a razor for my birthday!  I looked very young back then...the band even tried to draw a mustache on me with a crayon or something.  Didn't work!  Nevertheless, we had the house gig at the Aladdin in Vegas and also began playing in Reno as well as Lake Tahoe.  That was great but a couple of years of this and I needed a change of some kind.   

    At age seventeen, I wanted to play rock so bad that I gave my notice to the band, which I had grown up with, which was a tough decision.  My plans were to come back to Florida and play with rock bands.  While playing the last month with this band (Ottice Yawn) at the El Rancho Casino in Vegas, the other band on the bill with us ran into a problem when their drummer quit without notice.  I filled his job, while continuing to play with Ottice.  This added up to six sets on weekdays and eight on the weekends with no day off.  But…. the biggest paycheck I had ever made.  I think about that now and think "no way" physically, but back then I didn't, couldn't and was certainly not allowed to play anywhere close to the volume or with the physical power that I have for the last 18 or 21 years.   Back to the situation.  Two days into playing with this new band, I’m so in love with the lead singer that nothing in the world mattered except being around her.  I ended up joining that band for four years.  We broke "us" off simply because I still wanted to go play rock-n-roll in Florida and she couldn't leave her family, also the band.  Danielle Steele should get in touch for that one! 

    So I left for Florida to play loud, grooven' rock!!  Instead, I went a bit hungry.  Without Mom, I would have had to eat my drums for nourishment!  Eventually, many bands followed which are already listed on this website. 

    Let's jump ahead now to 1990. Music was really changing then but I was not quite ready to change.  An offer came to join a band that I had really loved for a long time, The Pat Travers Band.  At that point I had to decide if I wanted to be a part of a "band" or a "hired gun" so to speak.  Remember that I was making more money when I was fifteen than with all those bands before Pat.  I decided to go with Pat Travers, which I have no regrets at all.   

    The musicians I have played with over the year’s to-date are true players that bring something serious to the table and you just learn from them.  One of the highlights was doing a record with Leslie West.  What a great experience!  Wouldn't trade that for anything in this world. Two words, "Mississippi Queen.” Nuff said..  Pat had told Mike Varney to give me a call, which landed me the chance to get that record and it turned out perfect. It took Les no more than 20 second's playing time to hire me....(note: Leslie was playing this riff that was mean yet sexy that just was built for a groove so I probably said in my own mind, what would Bonham do? He really was loven’ it and I was the guy. This is after he had booted out all of the "studio players" that were trying to get that one.. Watching Steve Hunter play his take on Billy Joel’s "New York State of Mind" was indeed mind blowing with the sound of his Strat going through a Leslie! That was something that I'll never forget. With that record (Dodgen the Dirt) we only had maybe 2 days for rehearsals and we started cutting by the 3rd day, so at times the production was too rushed and some thing's in the drum sound, to me, just weren't kicken as they should. Plus the tambourine being way off on the very first song. But, it was still a pleasure to have played for as well as toss around a few ideas with Les.  The so very coolest thing possible was that because The Pat Travers Band was separate from these Pat recordings were considered "solo" records at that time. Peter Cowling and I played on two songs from that record of Pats called "Just a touch." So, Ansley Dunbar was doing Pat's other tracks. Anyone that follows music knows that Ansley Dunbar is a giant among rock drummers. Talking to him is a serious lesson in the history of rock. What a cool, great thing it was meeting him. 

    After playing with The Pat Travers Band for a few years (90-93), the band, for whatever reasons, disbanded.  Actually, I was the only member that kept playing with Pat.  Jerry Riggs and Mars decided they wanted to do other things.  We traveled a lot!, I mean, really a lot!  One day while we were rehearsing with the new players, the road manager called to say I would have to cut my kit down for one run. I, the incredibly hardheaded one, would have no part of that.  It should have been no big deal at all, but I left the best band a drummer could ever want to play with because I wouldn't reduce my kit to one bass drum for one run.  Big Mistake!! (Remember this one if your starting out because this was truly a big mistake)   

    There were several things to do in the years that followed. One was getting the call to be the touring drummer for Heart's new cd "Desire Walks On".  So on to Seattle I go.  I love Seattle, even the rain. Even though the tour fell through, Howard Leese and I put together a band with Jason Boyleston on bass and the ever so incredible Freddie Krumons on lead vocal and percussion. This band was a monster of a rock-n-roll band! We just didn't play enough to earn a living. If only money were not involved. Gene Simmons would freak to hear me say that! Rickey Medlock called me while still out in Seattle and asked if I would consider coming back to play with "Blackfoot", now, I think the world of Rick and really wanted to play in his group. Maybe still one day that just might happen. Rick was very good to his drummer by giving him a 6 week notice. After 3 weeks of waiting though, I started to get the fever. While out for a couple of days with my bro Tom Curiale, the drummer/road Mgr. for Rick Derringer, they did a show with the "Outlaws" who just happen to be looking for a replacement for their drummer B.B. from the mighty "Mothers Finest". I told Rick about it and jumped into being a bona-fide Outlaw. What great players I had the fortune to play with during that time.  The reason I don’t go into them more is because the information is already on the site. 

    The Lou Gramm Tour.  That is the most recent and really great musical experience, one that will never be looked back on in any kind of negative way at all.  What a band! What a legend! What great songs to rock on and what a nice long pleasure to have been associated with.  The Foreigner fans are some of my very best friends, which if you are a traveler, you know close friends are a bit harder to come by.  It all goes hand in hand with the music/music business.  It is my heart.  To one day finally land a steady gig with people that have been there and are just cool people. That day will come … soon I hope.  The Journey isn't so bad though. You get lots of stories to tell later. 

    I guess this may not be considered a regular proper bio; I just wanted to sit down at this keyboard and try to act like we are just hangin' out and having a conversation.  Now you will have to tell me about yourself when I am out doing a show.  Tell you what; we will have these code words for you to give to the security people (the ones that will prevent you from getting to me).   The code words are..."Hit It C.C.".  So, remember and we'll hook up and have a chat. 

    The journey of being a musician is one hell of a ride.  The music business can be extremely difficult.  It's hard on your pride and your heart (big time); it's just a hard business to be in.  There are younger players that will continue down this road and there are players that will not figure it to be worth it and stop doing it.  My guess is the biggest percentage is in the latter.  The other side of the musical coin is this. When the lights go down, you hear that roar...oh man... whether you're playing in front of 100 people or 50,000, the feeling you get is better than anything possible.  Ever! Well, Ok there may be another little something that is kinda equal... Playing music is a part of your soul.  This saying is so true in my case.  The hour and a half on stage is the best!  It's the other 22 and a half hours that can be tough.  For those of us that keep kicking at that musical dream door, I do wish you all the success that you desire and deserve.  For those of you who are just hangin' out, tryin’ to be cool and just being a cocky ass…. GET OUT OF OUR WAY! You’re takin' up space!!!  Ha, Ha.  Hey… it had to be said.

To the Groove - K.

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