~ Mike Rogers~

Mike grew up in the mountains of western North Carolina. He was surrounded by a great deal of traditional music. He used to go and listen to his dad play bluegrass mandolin when he was really young. While still in elementary school, Mike started messing around with the banjo. His father taught him a few rolls and chords to get started with. He would spend hours on their front porch trying to play songs from artists like Earl Scruggs and Bela Fleck. It was about a year later that he decided he wanted to play the guitar. Mike began to try to play every song he heard on the guitar. The reality was setting in that this was something that he was suited for. He found some old 45’s that his father had. A lot of it was along the lines of the Ventures, and Dick Dale & the Deltones. Mike had an affinity for old rock and roll, and shuffle/swing music. Mike spent hours upon hours listening to those records learning them forwards and backwards. In the early days, Mike learned everything from Tony Rice and Ricky Skaggs to James Taylor and Jimmy Buffet. When Mike was 14, he got an old "no name" electric guitar. It was a guitar that his father had when he was Mike’s age. The guitar was in a box in pieces. Mike found it and put it all back together and started playing it. Over the next 8 or 9 years, Mike started listening to guitarists like Clapton, Hendrix, John Lee Hooker, Albert King, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. It is the latter that Mike says has influenced him more than any single guitarist. In the more recent years, guitarists like Zack Wylde, Alex Lifeson, and John Petrucci became a more prominent influence.

"I am addicted to music… it is my life, my blood, my heart. It is the one thing that has been with me throughout my life while helping me grow and understand my feelings. Music has also been the medicine that I have taken for so many years when the pain and the heartache have surfaced. Music has changed my life forever. Without it, I would be shattered." - Mike Rogers