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Moyer Bros. Music. Geoff was a great teacher, and he was also in a local band called People!,
who eventually signed with Capitol Records and had a hit with a cover of the Zombies’ ‘I Love
You’. Geoff relocated to LA not long after that, and I started studying with another teacher at
Moyer’s, Don Cirallo. Don was a great teacher as well, and he played in clubs and so forth, so he
started teaching me more jazz chords, and more jazz-oriented tunes, like ‘Sunny’ and tunes
like that. In high school I also started playing in big bands, doing a lot of Buddy Rich’s charts,
which was my first exposure to playing live in a jazz context. I also played in garage bands
doing the rock/pop stuff, so I was a bit of a split personality musically. When I was a senior in
high school I started studying with avant-garde jazz guitarist Jerry Hahn, who was a major
influence and turned me on to all kinds of stuff, including the Wes Montgomery/Jimmy Smith
records, Kenny Burrell, Miles, Coltrane, and Charlie Parker.

LL: You've had the pleasure of working as a guitarist with many famous artists over the
years. Of course, there's your legendary guitar solo on Chuck Mangione's 1978 hit ‘Feels
So Good’. I'd love to hear about the recording of that solo and what it's meant to you
over the years.

GG: It's really very flattering that people still talk about it. And more recently there's a bunch
of people posting on YouTube trying to play it, so it really does seem to have a life of its own!
"Feels So Good" was a Top 40 radio hit, and it was really nice, and a bit surreal, to hear that
song, with my solo, as a hit on the radio. The funny thing is, it was never intended to be a
single, because the full album version is about 9 minutes and 45 seconds long. But someone in
the A&R department at the label figured out the shorter radio edit, and the rest is history. It
was really fun to make that album, because Chuck gave us tons of artistic freedom as a band,
so it was a group effort that really did feel good.

LL: You've written music for quite a few popular TV shows. Which shows have you
contributed to, and does one stand out as a
favourite experience? Tell us all about it
please!

GG: My writing partner, Dennis C. Brown, and
I did all twelve seasons of Two and a Half Men.
I also co-wrote the theme, and we were
nominated for an Emmy Award for that. We
also did all six seasons of Mike and Molly,
which was really fun because it was mostly
bluesy guitar stuff. We have also contributed
specialty songs to The Big Bang Theory, plus
other specialty music for Mom. For season 4
through 6 of Mike and Molly they had us do a
more up-tempo version of the Keb Mo theme,
and Keb came to my home studio to sing it
and overdub some guitar licks. Then Keb and I
sang all the background vocals together,
which was great to do, and he was really cool
to work with. Two and a Half Men was the most fun, because Charlie Sheen's character was a
jingle writer/piano player, so there was a bunch of songs and stuff we had to do for that show.
And I was even featured on camera in one episode, with one speaking line plus playing guitar
backing up Michael Bolton. The show remains in syndication and really holds up well, since
the writing is so funny.