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and I went to Berkeley College of Music, and I got better and better and better, and
here I am today.

BiTS: And in getting better and better, you must have been listening to other

musicians beyond Hendrix. Who did you actually listen to?

MD: Well, it started with Hendrix, and then I got into classic rock, and I got into
Ritchie Blackmore and then I got into Clapton, and then I got into Frank Marino, and

then I got into Rush. And then I found the blues when I was a teenager, and that's
when I started listening to the three

Kings, B.B., Albert and Freddie. I love
Albert King, I love Albert Collins, then I
got into Thin Lizzy, and I found out Gary
Moore played blues. So I just found out

later on that the rock and roll which I
loved, it came from the blues. I discovered

the blues later.

BiTS: Ain't that the truth? Tell me
something about listening to the music.

Did you play along with them and learn
to play that way, or did you have lessons,
or what?

MD: My dad used to work at the post
office and so he found a guy, he was the
first black cellist with the Chicago

Symphony Orchestra, and he worked at
the post office. He had a little music
school down in his basement, so I went

and got my first lesson. I had to be eight
years old, and he said, what do you want
to play? I said I want to learn how to play

‘Smoke On The Water’.

So he taught me how to play ‘Smoke On The Water’, [singing] dow, dow, dow. Dow,
dow, dow. Then the next week he said, I got good. I got it done. Next week he said,

what do you want to play? I said I want to play ‘Fly Like an Eagle’ by Steve Miller. So
he showed me how to play that [singing] dow, dow, dow. Dow, dow, dow, with those
licks. So then he told my dad, your son is advancing really fast. He's like, he should

learn how to read music, and I was like, I don't want to read music. I just want to play.
I don't care about that. I don't need that. I just want to play. So, like a year went by
and he kept showing me stuff.

He gave me this rock and roll boogie woogie guitar book, and I learned all the
progressions and stuff in there. So he's like, I'm going to teach you how to read. So