Ron Rowe served as president of JW Pepper following the tenure of his dear friend Dean Burtch. The two men were not only incredible business partners, they were close personal friends. ...
Bobby Guitar Bennett was among the pioneering musicians who proved that Fender Stratocaster was the perfect instrument for the blues. Mr. Fender designed his electric guitar for country ...
Dr. John became the unofficial ambassador of New Orleans music by showcasing the mystic and voodoo rich traditions of southern Louisiana, which has become the backdrop to many Mardi Gras ...
Weird Al Yankovic built his career upon creating parodies of hit songs, with a special focus on incorporating his beloved accordion. Al began recording his silly songs on tape and mailin...
Dan Weingarten is a professor at CSU Northridge who also taught at Loyola Marymount University within the Theater Arts Department with a specialty on professional lighting. He has both d...
Bill Szymczyk built a small crystal radio set as a kid and soon discovered a world of music and sound that would forever change his life. As a recording engineer and producer, Bill develo...
Andy Vargas’ father was the leader of a mariachi band, which became a large influence on young Andy growing up. He witnessed what the power of music could do, not only on the audiences, ...
Bobby Watson grew up in Lawrence, Kansas and remembers dreaming of buying a new saxophone at the local music store. An early gig with drummer Art Blakey began Bobby on his career as a no...
Bob Rupp was on his way to Hollywood to make his name as a session player when his car broke down in Denver. The year was 1979 and Bob never left Denver. Without a job, Bob played aroun...
Steve Rucker is the Director of Drumset Studies at the University of Miami. His long and interesting career began in Charlotte, where his father fell in love with big band music and ofte...
Jonathan Mover began playing drums at age 13, being inspired by the music he heard on the radio. While his career included playing for well-known jingles, winning Grammy’s and producing f...
Scott MacDonald grew up in a musical family, with his father having been a bagpiper. When Scott’s hands had developed enough to begin lessons on the bagpipes, at age eight, he took to th...
Michael Lipe turned his passion for guitars into his own, successful business. Founder and owner of Lipe Guitars in California, Michael gained experience for his trade by building a serie...
Steve Grindrod is the guitar amplifier designer who has pioneered the master-volume models for Marshall with design work on the JCM800 and Silver Jubilee lines as well as the Marshall JCM...
Larry Cragg is sometimes called the guitar repairman to the stars! He established a repair shop in Marin County, California, to offer an extensive selection of rare and vintage equipment...
Gene Cornish began playing harmonica at an early age and soon added guitar to his list of instruments, the very two he would make a full career from. As an original member of the rock ba...
June Wang is very proud of her company, Pearl River. She is an outstanding spokesperson for the China-based piano manufacturer. In fact, it was Ms. Wang who assisted the NAMM Oral Histo...
Tom Van Hoose has become an expert on the Gibson 400 Series guitars and in fact even wrote the book on the subject. As a collector, Tom found himself surrounded by used guitars and decide...
Frank Simes was born in Tokyo, Japan and began studying guitar at the age of ten. During his fascinating career in music Frank has played guitar with the likes of Mick Jagger and Stevie ...
Todd Ostrander is the CEO at Tectonic Audio Labs in Woodinville, Washington, which specialized in flat panel sound reinforcement loudspeakers and technology. The company was established ...
Dave Firestone joined the pro audio industry, thanks to his friend Greg Mackie. Greg asked Dave to help him with his mixer products and in fact was on the ground floor of Mackie Designs ...
Marco Ragni is the president of Fatar, which has concentrated on the development of keyboard actions for electronic musical instrument. The company products include keyboards for digital...
Roman Perschon was born in Austria and developed a passion for sound equipment and audio as a child. While traveling around the world, Roman developed his idea of creating microphone pro...
Frank Pampenella is the owner and president of PM Music Center in Aurora, IL and has worked in the music industry for over 30 years. He founded PM Music Center in 1982, when he transition...
Phil Moon was serving as Vice President of Sales and Marketing of Lynx Studio Technology at the time of his NAMM Oral History interview. At the time he discussed his overwhelming success ...
Andres Mayo is a Grammy-winning audio engineer and producer who served as president of the Audio Engineering Society from 2014-2015. He began his membership with AES back in 2003 and has...
Ziggy Haspod joined his brother-in-law in running a small music store before working for The Music Stand in Tucson, Arizona. It was at that store where Ziggy met with many traveling sale...
DW Fearn began working part time as an engineer for WPEN in Philadelphia while still in high school. His passion for audio grew and developed as he collected equipment. His goal was to ...
Michael Faltin wanted to discuss his views on customer service during his NAMM Oral History interview. The interview took place at the NAMM Show in 2016, when his store was awarded the “...
Leslie Faltin earned a degree the University of Arizona in chemistry with a minor in mathematics and physics. She was selling radiation therapy equipment in Bellflower, California with a ...
