The first band I was ever in was called Sweet Rage. I was the lead singer and later also became the bassist. I was about thirteen years old. It was basically just me and my best friends at the time trying to be cool, not much different than what I'm doing today!

Our first gig was at our junior high talent show in Colorado Springs, CO. Now, this was not the worst gig in the world. There were going to be about 700 pumped up little kids going crazy to hear us, even if it was at 10:00 a.m. (when we normally had recess). In my mind, if we did well, fame-and-fortune would not be far off.

We were only given time to play one song, so we knew we had to choose carefully. We contemplated doing an original song called "Love 'Em and Leave 'Em", but scrapped that idea since none of us had even kissed a girl yet. Since that was the best song we had as a band, we needed to consider doing a cover song. After serious contemplation, we decided to play "Heaven's On Fire" by Kiss.

Finally, the day of the show arrived. I really wanted to sound good, but it was just as important that we look good for "the ladies". We decided to go glam. We were wearing eyeliner, base, rouge, lipstick...the whole deal. I even temporarily dyed my hair black. We were a cross between Spinal Tap and Marilyn Manson.

As we started the song, our drummer's tempo was erratic, the guitars were out of tune and I was hitting bad notes...just like in practice. So far, so good. Just as I was really getting in to it, the unthinkable happened. Our guitarist Mick, tripped and fell on his ass in front of the whole school! He squirmed around on the ground acting like this was all part of the plan, but the damage was done. Even though the crowd loved us, that fall was the defining moment of the performance.

Although Sweet Rage broke up soon after the show, my career in music had only just begun. My next band was called Salem Spade.