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The proximity was close to San Francisco and Lake Tahoe and getting to Southern California was
not too difficult.

The music scene was pretty dynamic at the time with plenty of live music venues and several
bands finding national success. I
wasn’t the most popular artist in
the area, but I was known in many
genres which made me an
anomaly and allowed me to gain
a reputation as one of the leaders
in the music community there.

I also played with many of the
best-known artists in the area in
various performance situations,
so I think the musicians knew I
could hang.

My family fell apart when I was
young and the impact of it was
long lasting. There was a lot of
pain there for quite some time.
That’s about all I can say to that.

Music was always around and
everybody in my family
appreciated music. As a result, I
was exposed to all kinds of artists
and styles from an early age and
that has helped me have a wide
range of styles in my own music.

LL: You started playing guitar
professionally at age 14. What
drew you to the instrument?
Did you study or were you self-
taught?

ET: I’m not totally sure what drew
me to the guitar. I suppose it’s a
bit like why you find someone
attractive. Sometimes there’s just
a spark and for me a guitar has that spark—especially electric guitar! I liked a lot of music that
featured guitar and I listened to a lot of guitar playing on the radio and on records. A guitar just
looks cool. When you sling one over your shoulder and hit a power chord through a gritty
amplifier it just kind of instantly gives anybody in a position of authority—a big middle
finger—and that still appeals to me to this day.

I started taking guitar lessons when I was 6 years old but stopped after a while. Then, when I
was 12, I got an electric guitar, and I was both feet in from that time on. I played every day and
I still play almost every day. I took guitar lessons for a few months in junior high school and
learned some fundamentals of blues and rock. In high school I took some classical guitar lessons