Chapter 1. Born to Run

Everyone has a true calling. Will you recognize yours when it's time?

Musical geniuses like Mozart and Hendrix began playing, even composing, almost before they could walk. I wasn't quite so gifted. I was just a normal kid growing up in Jacksonville, Florida, in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Music wasn't that much of a draw to me, not when there were sports and playing to be done. The first song I remember liking was Johnny Horton's "The Battle of New Orleans," but even then, it wasn't an "aha" moment. I just liked the groove.

Somewhere around my tenth birthday, though, my parents decided it was time to get me into music. They settled on piano; my cousin played it, and it seemed like the best option at the time. They tracked ...

Get Jam!: Amp Your Team, Rock Your Business now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.