A Rock & Roll Project started in earnest in 1982.  I had this desire to cover the song Hey Joe made famous by Jimi Hendrix (The Leaves recorded the song in the USA in 1966).

I started looking for a studio and discovered AudioGraph Productions. There I met Glenn Brown, a 2022 Grammy Award recipient for engineering.  Glenn played guitar and knew a lot of musicians in the area.  He helped immensely in the early days of the project. 

I needed musicians to record Hey Joe so Glenn introduced me to a local keyboard player, John Fitzgerald. John was interested in the project and agreed to participate.  He was also instrumental in providing two main ingredients…a drummer and a lead singer.

John took me to a local bowling alley where I met Rene Ledesma.  Rene had great stage presence and had the tubes of any professional singer…and… the girls loved him.  He was interested in recording in a professional studio environment and agreed to participate in the project

By coincidence, Rene’s brother Rick Ledesma happened to play bass guitar and…he had great tubes too ! Rick said he would be interested in the project and climbed on board. 

Next, John took me to another local bar and introduced me to Bob “Bubba” Grundner.  Bob was the drummer for the band Showdown ( the band still gigs today under the name Showdown Band ). Bob had prior studio experience with Glenn and agreed to participate in recording Hey Joe. 

Lastly, I needed a lead guitar player.  Rene took me to a local bar in East Lansing, Michigan.   There I met Tony Bowles…guitar player extraordinaire.  He was in a group called Freefall…a touring band from Louisville, Ky.  I was amazed that a guitar picker of his caliber was playing in such a small club (Tony was 23 at the time).  I asked him if he would like to record and he jumped on board too.  It was the beginning of a 40 year friendship.

I now had the nucleus for a 6 man rock band I called Tsunami…it was 1982 !!

Over the next 30 years the number of musicians participating in A Rock & Roll Project grew to over 25. There are 5 drummers, 3 lead vocalist’s, reggae and rap artists with numerous back-up singers, bass and keyboard players…the majority still performing today.