Bradley Sherrer

The bio I had to write for the first website:

"I get to write my own bio's till I get famous, and it isn't easy. Feels weird tellin' people about myself, but here goes.

I started playing music just because it was interesting, and it was cool, and just like everyone else in the world who ever started playing guitar, I too hoped to play in a big-time rock band.

Well, it was a nylon string job my mother and step-father picked up in a pawn shop, and within 10 minutes of owning it I had already snapped one of those fragile little strings in two. It had a tuning mechanism that was stripped, so I got the pliers after it, tuned it up too high, and WHAM!!!! Another broken-hearted fool is born.

I started off on Cobain somehow. Definitely not my bag now, but the Unplugged in NY was easy enough to get with as a 15 year old newb. I still dig the hell out of that entire album. Then there was the normal stuff, like not sleeping right till I learned "Freebird", "Stairway To Heaven", and the list goes on and on and on. Matter of fact, music STILL haunts me till late in the evening. It's never good enough.

From there I moved on to Saul Hudson. He's got a nickname, but if you don't know his real name, educate yourself. Matter of fact I may be old enough now that he's a member of the Classic Rock genre. Either way, I spent hours going over every detail of every song of GNR's albums. Painstaking. Then I dabbled with Clapton, ZZ Top, Joe Walsh, and so on. I still hadn't owned an electric guitar at that point, so you can imagine how much imagination it took to power through those years. Like I said, "Painstaking"

So I joined the Marine Corps against my better judgement (at 19 I honestly believed being in the military was going to make me not want to do music anymore) only to find out that my MOS, 0311; during peacetime, meant I'd be specializing in Madden(insert make), Gran Turismo, and most of all - practice, practice, practice... While on ship on a MEU deployment, I'd sit and play for hours. And hours. And hours. "Against my better judgement" means I was 19, not old enough to know what good judgement was. GOD BLESS those men and women. If you don't agree, keep your money in your pocket.

Almost got heavy there didn't it?

But the day came where I finally acquired a taste for SRV. "Acquired a taste for SRV?!?!?!?!" you say? Yes. It was my dad's idea, and dad's ideas were lame because he was a parent... Yeah, well, until recently my entire guitar setup was pure Fender just because I fell deeply in love with the sound of 2 steel doors slamming shut. Not a $20,000 Fender rig, but close enough for me to be extremely happy in a jam band or two. And that's where I started messing around as a "lead" player. I say that loosely because there's no way I'll ever meet my own expectations as far as lead guitar is concerned. But I'm not bad I've been told.

So I came home, got out, and went to work like normal. Crewboats, Driving a truck, working in a machine shop or 3, and so on. Every once in a while, I'd get to play with buddies for free beer at a local hole in the wall. And we sucked (except that one time). Boy did we ever. And I knew it. And I hated it. I could hear it so plainly, but didn't know why... Then came the light bulb - Audio Engineering, but that's a different can of worms, on a different website. But it made me understand the need for balance between different instruments/voices and such.

Fast forward to a bad night, I was sick, and drunk, and I had a bone to pick, so I wasn't too worried about who was watching as I got up at an open mic night to play "The End". And I didn't expect the reaction I got.

But it all went to the back burner. Different time and place, and it just wasn't meant to happen. So, I tinkered until I met a girl who said, "Why don't you try to do music?" So I did.

I'm pretty happy with it so far. Not the pace though. My next milestone is 300 nights in a year. I have a 12' trailer stuffed to the gills with band equipment and a 4 door pickup. The front seat is actually more comfortable for sleeping.

There you go. That's as candid as it gets without me handing you my kids Social Security #'s. I hope it was a good read. If not, well, sorry I'm just not as exciting as the others."

Things have matured since.