During the early 1980s, I met John Cephas, John Jackson and Archie Edwards who inspired me to play blues. There were very few young black musicians playing or even interested in traditional blues. They never charged me for a lesson and they only asked me to pass it on because when they retire, they were concerned the music would loose it's identity with black culture.

In 1986, we started then Washington, D.C. Blues Society.  John Cephas was the President and Barry Lee Pearson was the Chairperson. After the first year, I worked so hard they elected me to be the Chairperson and later the President. I served 5 years. During this time, I started the DC Blues Festival and was Director of the festival for the first three years (1988, 1989 and 1990). I was fortunate to meet a lot of the living legends of the blues such as Robert Jr. Lockwood, Henry Townsend, Sammy Price, Willie Dixon, Sunnyland Slim, Etta Baker and Dr. Ross among others.

In 1990, I met 'Philadelphia' Jerry Ricks and we became best of friends as he lived in Baltimore, Maryland. Jerry was, and still is, the most fascinating and imaginative guitarist I have ever met. He was taught by a lot of the original blues men and women in the early 1960s. He, in turn, passed a lot of the same knowledge of the blues bestowed upon him, on to me. It was during this time I developed my style of playing. When asked why I play the style of music I do, I reply, "Cephas, Jackson, Edwards and Ricks amongst a host of others, told me to do it this way and their way is the only way I know how to do it. If it was good enough for them, then it's good enough for me".