This is the original posting that I updated on September 2003. I was reharsing for a scheduled drum clinic in Florida
on the 17th with 4 more to follow after that. While I was rehearsing backing musicians, I had severe pain in my right hand,
enough to make me stop playing for the night.

I had a lump on my palm for a few months and thought nothing much of it, until it effected my drumming. I went to
the doctor and found it to be a condition called Dupuytren's Contracture.

This is basically a nodule, I had 2, on a fibrous layer of tissue between my skin and tendons. It was causing my ring finger
and little finger to bend forward. It is painful. I am waiting to schedule surgery. Therapy and recovery should be at least
a month. There is a lot of info on the web about it. If you know of any other drummers that experienced this please let me
know.

At the time, the Doctors told me I would never play again. That was hard info to take in at the time to say the least, but I
was determined to go through therapy and prove them wrong. It took me three months to hold the stick and play on a pad.
What I did not mention at the time was, I could not play on the real feel type pad for more than a few minutes. Due to a
shooting pain up my arm, and the palm of my hand hurt real bad. I tried for several months practicing like that. The first time
behind the drum set was a complete disaster. As soon as I hit the Hi Hat or ride cymbal, the pain was unbearable. I continued
like this for weeks. I was taking pain pills to deal with the pain and help trying to play on the drum set with the same bad results.

When I played my last gig with Big Brother & The Holding Company in Pennsylvania, with Vanilla Fudge and Jefferson Airplane, I remembered that Carmine Appice had a different type of practice pad, one that was made more of a foam rubber
material. I reached out to the company, ePadco.com, in January then began practicing with their pad. Since the pad was more
forgiving, more bounce, I could play longer! I experimented with different sized sticks and weights. But I did not return to the
drumset for over 3 years.

During those three years, I spent a hell of a lot of time with my family and kids, riding my Harley, writing, studying computer
networking, my other passion, IP Telephony. I am a Cisco certified CCVP(certified voice professional), CCDA
(certified design associate) CCNA (Certified networking associate) and now am working towards the CCNP (networking professional). I have a pretty interesting design for integrating SIP trunks into TDM PBX's.

In January 2007 I decided to try to teach again. I wanted to use that as an excuse to get behind the drum set again. I only took on 2 students. I weeded out many beginners or people that I did not think were serious enough. For once, I did not need the money from being a teacher as I had a pretty cool computer networking job.

A guy from one of the bigger classic rock bands in the area emailed me from a flyer he saw at the local music shop to see if I was interested in drumming in his band. For the hell of it I tried it out. I did not tell them that I had not drummed for 3 years, I just went on the audition. I could not believe how everything came back to me. Sure I was tired and a bit rusty, but they did not notice. Best of all, my hand did not hurt. That only encouraged me more. Soon we were playing out the 9:30 - 1:30 all night gigs, something I have not done in about 20 years. It was unfair of me to use this band to see if I could drum again since I was not really looking to be in a classic rock, working band. I lasted almost 1 year with the band before I quit. We were playing out almost every weekend, both Friday and Saturday nights. That was something that I did not want any more. We parted ways. I shifted my attention to family and work since I knew I could drum again. I kept the drums set up in the garage and now playing whenever I wanted. It was also fun watching my kids play on my kit.

I began writing more double bass lessons for one of my students and that prompted me to finish the book,
Burning on Double Bass: Kick-Ass Exercises for your Feet. A few sections were published in January and April 2009 issues of Modern Drummer. One more is on the way. The book is near completion, mainly waiting on new photos.

I started getting new ideas together for new instrumental tunes and was starting to look for a local studio when I received a call from drummer David Skittlethorpe. He was a working drummer for the better part of his life.
He toured with The Box Tops ( The Letter, Cry Like a Baby, Soul Deep). We met here in Florida, and after a few conversations, I was going to try help him play drums with a different technique and double bass, and he was going to record my new music at his studio, nice trade. I began in August and had hoped to have all tracks done in a week or so. Then I had to get kidney stornes removed....the hard way. I'll spare you the details. So after revovering form that mess, it basically brings us up to date 11/2009. I have studio time set for next week! I'll be posting pics and videos and share as much as I can.

I have a real cool story with David and once I get permission, I will post that as well.

After going through everything that I have over the past few years, I just wanted to share this bit of advice,

NEVER GIVE UP!