Jim Mathews played drums and formed a band when he was just ten years old. He was encouraged by his mother, who was a singer in the big bands during the swing era. He soon developed a str...
Neil Larrivee was just four years old when he began playing drums. His father was a manager for rock bands and music was all around Neil as he grew up. He served in the Drum and Bugle Cor...
Gabriela König is the CEO of König & Meyer, a music manufacturing company for which her grandfather started in the 1930s. He was a tool maker who saw the need for well structured musi...
Jens Ritter is the innovative luthier who gained wide attention after a three page article about his instruments ran in a 1996 issue of Guitar & Bass magazine. A few years later, he a...
Little Willie G. sang in one of the most successful bands to come out of East Los Angeles in the early 1960s, Thee Midniters. Willie G (the G stands for Garcia) was always proud of his cu...
Wes Lane is respectfully known as The Voice of God at the NAMM Show. He earned the name as the main announcer introducing CEO Joe Lamond and his many guests during the Breakfast of Champi...
Joe Pestka understands the values and procedures behind each NAMM Show because he has been a key part of the show since he was a teenager. His father was a carpenter for the Chicago trade...
Tom Pistone has been a dedicated member of the NAMM Show family since 2002. His role behind the scenes during the trade shows is one of safety and security. As a former New York Police Of...
Jade Yu has always treated her employees at Tycoon Music like family. She has worked as Managing Director with the company her husband started since the beginning, and is often called the...
Carl Verheyen is a noted studio musician who has been a member of the popular rock band Supertramp. While in the studios, Carl has recorded with a long list of artists and for several mov...
Michael Nesmith is best known as the woolen hat-wearing member of iconic television pop band the Monkees, which enjoyed massive global success during the 1960s. Outside of the Monkees, Ne...
Bo Engberg was asked by a guitarist friend if he would please build a better amplifier. That one request from a friend change the direction of his career because Bo soon discovered he rea...
Betty Comer has owned and operated Gibson’s Music in Corbin, Kentucky since 1969. When asked about the store, Betty fondly describes Gibson’s as “the Mom and Pop store but just with the M...
Orianthi is an Australian born guitarist who, as a young teen, experienced what most aspiring musicians can only dream of. She had opened for her hero Steve Vai, traded solos with a guita...
Willie Bam Bam Parker’s mother has said that at birth, her son came out swinging and she knew even then that he was going to be a drummer. At age 3 his love of drums was rewarded his with...
Steve Sykes found it easy to answer one of the biggest questions in a NAMM Oral History interview; “Did you have music in your house growing up?”. Steve’s mom was a booking agent in the 1...
Chris Adamson worked as an engineer’s apprentice where he saved up enough money to purchase a van. This van led him to carve a strong friendship with guitarist Mark Ronson (who later went...
Ellis Hall is a man of many talents. This singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, actor, and composer may have lost his sight at the young age of 18, but he quickly found inspiration by...
Bob Glaub is a respected American bass player and session musician who has performed with an incredible amount of high profile artists including; Journey, Steve Miller Band, John Fogerty,...
Adriana Balic is a vocalist, keyboardist, guitarist, songwriter, producer, bandleader, and educator, covering styles from classical to pop/rock and jazz. From 2003 she served as keyboardi...
Nate Watts grew up in Detroit, Michigan when Motown was in full swing, and it proved to be a major inspiration for the bass legend. In 1974 Nate was summoned by Stevie Wonder to join his ...
Carmine Appice looked up to drummers like Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich as he honed his talent and became an extremely successful rock drummer. Working with names like Vanilla Fudge, Cactus, ...
Yvan Miron is from a long line of craftsman, a family trade that he traces back to the mid-1600s. Born in Quebec, Yvan started playing guitar when he headed off to college and after he fi...
Patrick Nettesheim was a Milwaukee based guitar instructor when a life-changing meeting occurred in 2007 with Vietnam-era Marine, Dan Van Buskirk. Dan had always wanted to learn how to pl...
Omar Quezada is a singer and songwriter from the Dominican Republic whose music is defined by its Latin essence and rhythms. His solo career began in 2016 with the release of his first si...
This is the full length NAMM Oral History interview with Chris Pelonis, which was captured on May 22, 2014. For his biography and web-clip, please follow this link: https://ww1.namm.org/l...
Tom Thompson first heard an organ in a small church as a child and knew at that moment that somehow, someway, that instrument would be a part of his life. He was right! His first job in t...
John Hood was working music retail in the Sacramento area at a very heady time. The California capital was booming with innovative rock and pop bands in the 1980s and 90s while John was a...
Gary Beckerman was introduced to TEAC and TASCAM when he consulted on inventory control in the early 1970s. The company appreciated his ideas and dedication and soon asked him to join ful...
Kevin Crossley studied as a classical pianist and technician before he started working for SIR (Studio Instrument Rentals) in 1974. While he was based in Los Angeles, he traveled often to...
