AMS Flashback: From Muppets to Music

By Scott Siegel

Growing up I always had a love for music. When I was around the age of seven, I think, my parents bought me a drum set. I used to play it for hours. I could keep a pretty good beat. I used to watch the Muppets and whenever Animal would bang on the drums, my eyes were glued to the TV. I guess you could say that I took the wrong qualities from Animal, because, soon after, my parents gave my drum set away. Too many neighbors would complain constantly. I was bummed out, but then moved on to the piano. I pretty much taught myself the chords. I was decent and over the years I took lessons from friends and even lessons at Musicians Institute. I mainly grew up listening to the Stones and the Beatles. My mom being a huge Stones fan, and my dad loving the Beatles. That is what inspired me to play music. People used to tell me that there was no future in music, so I never really pursued it until after culinary arts school. When my parents would go out of town, and I had the house to myself, I would write music and I found a love for singing. I bought a cheap drum set from a friend and I recorded myself singing with the piano and then adding drums. I have over 20 cassette tapes of songs I recorded. It made me want to become a singer/songwriter. I have now written over 500 songs.