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A composer, producer, stage director, and performer with over 150 albums to his credit, spanning a 40-year career. He has a million-selling record to his credit, was nominated twice for a Tony Award on Broadway, and is a winner of the New York Theater Critics Drama Desk Award. He has had great success in film scoring, Broadway musicals, pop music, gospel, television, and he has even written ballets for the Joffrey Ballet. He even had a regular role on television on a daytime drama. Late last year he also launched a podcast, plus he is CEO and Co-Owner of Watchfire Music.

Notable Guest Quotes

"Back in the day I bought a home in Antigua... and I would sit on the beach with my guitar and write songs... and just the sounds of the place just infiltrated my brain and out would come these, kind of, calypso, reggae songs."

"I've come across songs that I wrote and I can't remember how they go, because I've written thousands of songs or thousands of pieces of music."

"I've had a career in pop music, on Broadway... (and) I spent 15 years doing industrial music, which is music for corporations."

"I produced albums, every different kind, classical albums and pop albums and inspirational albums and R&B and gospel."

"I started off in New York as an actor... and when you're an actor, you're a storyteller, right?"

"I was a good drummer.  My dad was a professional drummer and so I learned from him.  And I just, I was always into music.  When I was in college, I had a rock band, and I had a folk group, and I was the student conductor of the choir at the college.  And it just seemed like music was gonna be my life."

"I actually wrote a musical called Salvation, which became a hit, and out of that musical was the first hit song that I had... which sold two million copies and was number one on the Billboard pop charts."

"One, I didn't live for the stage.  And the other thing was, I had a tough time with fame."

"You have to have a bout with being famous... It's not life.  It's not life the way it should be.  I got to the point where I would walk down the street and I needed to be recognized."

"I quit.  I said, 'I'm not a performer.  I can do it, I have a craft, but I don't have that special thing.'  I like being off stage."

"The musical theatre, I think, is one of the most collaborative art forms that there is.  A lot of different people have to come in and work together."

"I got this job working at the New York Shakespeare Festival at the public theatre... and I did 40 shows... in the course of five years.  Most composers are lucky if they can get two shows on in five years."

"Stay centered.  Don't get crazy about your great reviews, and then you won't get crazy about your bad reviews."

"As an artist, you have to stick your neck out.  It's gonna get chopped off."

"If somebody doesn't get up and walk out in a huff, I'm not doing my job."

"If you're not stirring the emotions of people in a strong way, you're not really being an artist."

Songs on this episode

"Whitebird"
"On My Way Home"