Vera May was the matriarch figure of the iconic Australian acoustic instrument maker Maton Guitars. Wife of the founder, Bill May, Vera worked in the business from 1954 until her retireme...
Ray Fransen was born in New Orleans and began playing drums at an early age. He played professionally full-time for years and taught drum lessons until the birth of his first child. At th...
Frank D'Arcangelo grew up in a house that always had music playing. He has memories of his parents record collection and large stereo system that seemed to always be playing. He took to t...
James Singleton was born in Chicago and took to playing bass at an early age. After performing in the Chicago area and briefly attending the University of North Texas, James was called to...
Robert Strait is proud of the music retail traditions that his father developed when their family owned store was first established back in 1967. Since that time, his father, Dan, along w...
David Strait is one of two sons of original Strait Music Company owner and founder, Dan Strait. During his interview David talked about growing up working with their father in a true fami...
Tommy Robertson was born in Austin, Texas, a feat he calls “as rare as a unicorn these days.” Tommy played drums throughout his teen years before he decided to open his first drum shop. T...
Steve Fulton was born in California but quickly made his way to Austin to perform in bands all over town. Although he was originally a drummer, he was struck by the aura of the guitar and...
Mike Henry was born in Los Angeles, CA and studied drums with Mel Zelnick at Mel's store, The Music Stop. When he was older, Mike toured all over the US, Canada, and Japan, eventually set...
Johnny Vidacovich was born in New Orleans and raised by his mother and grandparents. He started playing drums when he was ten years old and would go to night clubs around New Orleans and ...
Herlin Riley is a native of New Orleans and a continuing link in the chain of great jazz drummers. Herlin was raised in a musical household by his grandparents and originally played the t...
Donald Harrison Jr. was born in New Orleans to a deeply musical family steeped in all styles of music: brass bands, jazz, R&B, funk, and world music. His father was a Mardi Gras India...
Mike Wood has witnessed many developments in professional lighting throughout his career. During his NAMM interview, Mike spoke about his background, as well as a few of those milestone ...
Michael Bland was playing drums for top acts while still in high school. Just two years out of school, in 1989, Michael began playing for Prince, a gig that lasted seven years. Michael wa...
Ralph MacDonald grew up in Harlem, where he was exposed to many musical traditions. As a drummer, he focused on his African roots and as a songwriter he relied on his soulful understandin...
Antonio Sanchez began playing drums at the age of five in his native Mexico and by the time he was a teenager he was playing professionally. After graduating from Berklee College of Music...
Tommy Aldridge doesn't mind being compared to the wild Muppet named “Animal." As Tommy puts it, both have crazy hair and crazy drum styles! Tommy's playing career has included gigs with O...
Jim Peterik was just a teenager when he joined a rock band and knew what he wanted to do when he grew up! He began writing songs and formed several bands including The Ides of March, whic...
Nicko McBrain joined the heavy metal rock band Iron Maiden in 1982 and has been an active endorsee of musical products since that time. Nicko can often be seen at a NAMM booth or on the f...
Tim Spicer studied special education in college and has applied his passion of helping others and his love of music when he opened a music store in 2012. Spicer's Music focuses on offerin...
William Groener has had an extensive career in lighting and theater design. He started out as a theater major at UC Santa Barbara and returned to the university as a professor before beco...
Roger Sparks started teaching guitar lessons in the wake of the Beatles boom in 1964. Just four years later he and his wife, Diane, opened Sparks Music in Arkansas City, Kansas. In 1974, ...
Diane Sparks and her brother, Donnie, formed a successful singing group in the 1960s. Donnie & Diane performed and recorded a string of hits, most written by Donnie. Diane's husband, ...
Yeegn Lougn Hoe, known as YL, grew up in a music filled home. His grandfather, Hoe Toh Hui, was born in China and moved to Malaysia in the 1940s and setup a piano store in a small mining ...
Frank Hackinson received the Music Publisher Association’s Life Time Achievement award in 2012 for a good reason; he was a legend in the industry! He began his career in music publishing ...
Perry Owoo has always had a real love and passion for music, so it did not surprise any of his family and friends when he opened up a music store in 2014. The store is located in his home...
Jeremy Payne first played clarinet in the school music program as a kid before switching to trumpet. That experience brought to light a true passion for music, which was further embedded ...
Marinko Tesla expressed a deep sense of pride in the fact that he works alongside his father, Bogdan, who established Tesla Tonewood Serbia in 1991. The father-son team work long and hard...
Bogdan Tesla is related to the physicist Nikola Tesla, who was born in the village of Smiljan, Austrian Empire (today that area is part of Croatia). Bogdan was in the military, but found ...
Robert Riedel sat down for his NAMM Oral History interview in January 2018 and spoke in depth about the steel guitar. As a steel guitar musician, Robert was influenced by the giants of th...
