Born: January 29, 1971
Hometown: Newton, NC
Parents: Robert (Bob) T.  and Barbara
Two younger brothers: David, 4 years younger; Brian, 8 years younger – (We all went to college, so Mama and Daddy kind of shot themselves in the foot with the timing)

Growing up, spent most of my time at my grandparents house.  We were a very close family and we were just always there, as was my mother's brother, his wife and son.  My cousin, Eric is one year younger than me, almost to the day.

There was a GINORMOUS rock in the back yard and a brook sprang from under it (Best water I've ever had in my life), and even though we were in town, my grandparents had a few acres that was converted to a horse pasture and we could ride the horse, or play in the field, dig clay out of a creek bank (real, moldable white clay that you could bake and make stuff out of—Eric and I got in trouble once for making sling shot ammo for our homemade slingshots our grandmother helped us make.  What's up with that?  One of our favorite things was catching crawdads in the creek.

My great grandparents lived one house up the road, and we would help my great grandfather tend to his garden and help the women string and snap beans, etc.  I can still smell the corn kernels that we would plant.  I was incredibly fortunate in that I knew both my great grandparents into high school.

I was the skinny, nerdy, smart kid in school – very shy and didn't even like being called on in class.  In middle school, I elevated that status to skinny, smart band nerd by playing saxophone in the band.  I chose the sax because I saw Richie Cunningham's "band" play on "Happy Days"
and thought it was the coolest sounding instrument ever, much cooler than the piano I had been taking lessons for.  I played all through school and played baritone sax when the Newton-Conover Marching Red Devils won a national band competition in Florida in 1988.

My summers were spent at my grandparents lake house or working in my grandfather's hosiery mill making athletic socks.  My first run-in with a teacher happened because of that mill.  At the time, my father worked for him and we had hosiery machines in our basement and I would help my mother count out the socks to be packaged by the dozen.  When I got to kindergarten, my teacher told me that a dozen was twelve, but I knew good and well that a dozen socks meant twenty-four because I had been counting out dozens of socks for years.  Anyway, I worked in the shipping department with my grandmother during the summers and loved every minute.  One year, Granddaddy's socks were worn by both teams playing the superbowl.  Well, I think it's cool.

In 1985, I lost my great grandfather, my fishing partner and in 1987, my great grandmother couldn't stand to be without him anymore and followed him.  The night she died, her spirit visited me at the foot of my bed, then went in to each of my brother's rooms.  I was heading down the stairs to see if my mother was up when the phone rang.  It was my grandmother, calling my mom to tell us great grandmother had died.

In 1988, my father decided it was time to stop being an accountant and go back into the ministry, or rather, God decided for him, so he enrolled in Duke University's Divinity program to begin work on his Master's degree and was given a student appointment at a small country church.  The family moved and I stayed at my grandparents to finish high school.

In 1989, I enrolled in ECU, joined a fraternity, learned about partying and about flunked out.  I acquired three important things from ECU: 1) I learned I don't get along well with Wild Turkey 101 (kickin' chicken) 2) I learned how to play guitar (much cooler that even the sax) and 3) I taught my brother to play guitar.

In 1991, my brothers, a friend of ours and I were sitting on my grandmother's front porch and decided we should start a band, so we did.  We were all in the high school band, I could sing, my brother and our friend Lee could play guitar, and Lee knew someone who could play drums.  After about 8 years, we had to break up because my brother, our guitarist went to college in Georgia.  We still played when we could and lasted on and off for about 14 years and eventually became pretty darned good.  David and our drummer both could have played professionally if they had been willing to go to the big city.

Also in '91, I enrolled at Pfeiffer College.  Here, I majored in English Lit and Secondary Ed, somehow got involved with the school's radio station as a DJ and began singing bass in the concert and symphonic choirs.  Somehow, being behind the mic in the DJ booth brought me out of my shell.  By the end of my college days, I was the GM of the station, and performed in front of as many people as I could, as often as I could.

In 1992, my grandfather died.  The family had to sell the hosiery mill and my grandmother went to work for the Newton Police Department as crossing guard and meter maid.  She still works that job every day.

I met my wife right after college.  I was working at a summer day camp and I was asked to go to another school to fill in.  It was actually the school my brother was working at doing the same thing, so I did.  I met my wife Angie that first day filling in.  She had worked with my brother for several years.  In 1997 we were married and lived in Newton for five years.  We used to spend a lot of time camping, backpacking and rock climbing in the mountains, but Angie kept talking about the Outer Banks.  So, one year, I tried to surprise her.  I led her to believe we were going to the mountains, but I headed East instead.  We had only been on the road for fifteen minutes when she looked at me and said, "You're taking me to the Outer Banks, aren't you?" Damn.  I guess telling her to bring a swimsuit gave it away.

After several years of vacationing in Buxton, I knew we would have to move here when I saw her crying as we crossed the Oregon Inlet Bridge to go home after a two-week stay.  She moved in to our new home Halloween the following year and I joined her on Thanksgiving.  We've been here ever since.

As far as teaching is concerned, I taught for four years before moving here and one year since moving here.  As much as I love teaching, you just don't get to do much of that anymore in the schools.  If I wanted to be in politics, I would have majored in civics and if I wanted to be a social worker I would have gone that route.

My other true loves are music and writing.  Now, since I will never be a big, rich, rock star, I am focusing on my writing while running shows.  I have two step-children, Christa who lives in Georgia and Tony who lives in Buxton until he goes back into the military.  Christa has a daughter, Alysa, in first grade, making me a granddaddy, and Tony is married, and he and his wife have taken custody of her nephew, Anthony, so I also have a 4 year old grandson.

I am rather complex -  an exercise in paradoxical relationships if you will.  I love being on stage and in the spot light, but at the same time, I fully enjoy my own company and would be perfectly content by myself for several days.  I view myself as an intellectual and a country boy.  When I dress up, I prefer Italian suits, French cuffs and wingtips, but I own quite a bit of camo.  I am the sensitive artist type and I love to hunt and fish.  One side came from my grandfather who taught me to hunt and fish (I always think of him when I hear "A Country Boy Can Survive") and the other from my father who to this day will correct my spoken English.  This has enabled me, though, to be able to get along with virtually anyone and feel comfortable in just about any situation.