from a piece penned in 2002, - it gets edited often as facts emerge.

photo credit: Max Hellweg, Rolling Stone Magazine

I had moved to San Francisco after a brief stint in Los Angeles. Coming from Fullerton California, SF in 1972 was amazing. I was like a kid in a candy store but I arrived with a nasty cold and no-where to stay. Fortunately in 1972 there was a fella (F.E. Mitchell) in SF that ran a 'home for wayward boys'.

At 19, I was wayward.

Yes I did graduate from High School but had no marketable skills and/or talents, at least I thought as I had no idea where the A/V Department could take one. The fella that ran this "home" sat me down one day and asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I certainly did not have a clue. I defiantly did not say I wanted to grow up to be a drug addict and get tossed out of bars because of my mouth when I was drunk. But what he did discover was that in High School I had been involved with the A/V department. Go Figure!