​How the guitar saved my life.

Suddenly, I had a voice.

​(Christmas Eve 1987)

I didn't know I wanted to play the guitar until my best friend came home with one from his school. Mark started taking after-school lessons from the nuns. He let me try it out, and I was immediately enamored. I had to get a guitar and take lessons too! I was 13 years old in 1976. I rushed home and begged my parents to let me take lessons at the music store three blocks from our house. A friend of my parents lent me her old "Kay" acoustic guitar, so I could start my lessons. The strings were very high up off of the fret board and the intonation was horrendous. I couldn't really play much more than a few chords and notes in the first position on the first few frets of the neck. But, I wasn't deterred.

Something deep inside me knew that the guitar was something I could do and maybe even be good at playing. I also knew I had a long way to go. The agreement was, my parents would pay for the weekly half-hour lessons as long as I got good grades in school. Well, that agre…