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 that the music would loose it's identity with the black culture.

In 1986, we started the 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 President, for which I served 4 years. During this time, I started the DC Blues Festival and was the 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 Sammy Price, Willie Dixon, Sunnyland Slim and Dr. Ross among others.

In 1990, I met 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 that I have ever met. He was taught by some of the original blues men and women in the early 1960s. He, in turn, passed the same knowledge of the blues bestowed upon him, on to me. It was during this time I developed my style of playing. So, when asked why I play the style of music that 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".