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and living in Spain. So I thought, okay, Mike can do absolutely nothing for you. He is

retired and living in Spain. You live in New York. You're in a room full of music industry
people. You need help. Go introduce yourself to someone who can actually help you.
But I just felt Mike is really the one I want to meet and if I congratulate him on his

big award, I don't have to feel that it's duplicitous at all, because there is no advantage
for me to meet him. And that's what I did and introduced myself. I actually just said,
hi, Mike, I just want to tell you how much I love your work. It's had a profound

influence on my life and thank you. And I could see a lot of other people pressing in
to speak to him, so I just
turned, turned around

and walked away
before he could even
say, who are you? And

then that night I was
asked to perform at the

Daisy Theatre. That
wasn't planned, but it
was one of those really
fantastic performances

where the band was
great. I was with John

Del Toro, John Del Toro
Richardson, and he's a great guitarist. And we just had such a blast, and the next day
Mike found me and said, why didn't you tell me you were a singer? It was not about
me. It's about you and he started asking questions about have you made a record,

what's happening? Yeah, and I had been signed to a label, but they lost their funding,
and I had just started recording the first few tracks for the album, and it was a terrible

disappointment. So nothing was happening with the material. Nothing was moving
forward and now Mike was asking to hear some of my work. So that's when I sent
him songs and he said, okay. People need to hear your voice, hear your songs. I'm
coming out of retirement to be the one to do this. That was about it [chuckles].

BiTS: Since that first album with Mike Vernon, you've done a number of other
performances with artists, particularly in the UK. I'm thinking of Innes Sibun, and

whatever, but you recently paired up with Robin Trower, and I'd like you to tell me,
if you would please, what the experience was like because he's a kind of, I don't know,
an elder figure, I guess you'd call him, in the blues rock scene in the UK and a very,

very well-respected individual.

SS: Yeah, and deservedly so. It was terrifying. I mean, I want to tell you that it was
absolutely the most inspiring creative work that I've done, but I have to tell you first

that it was terrifying because the idea of getting into the studio with a legend like
Robin and to honour him and to respect him, I wanted so desperately to work at my
best and give him the best that I could. If I was any good at all, it was because Robin