You know, sometimes it pays to get away from your passion for a while. That's what Dave did - he quit playing bass for 15 years.
"I just got burned out on the whole music scene. And anyway, I wasn't a very good bassist back then," says Dave.
Back then was in the late eighties when metal ruled and the band Nasty Nasty was the local heavy metal king. Nasty was formed from members of Dave's band, Melange, and White Tiger. They quickly rose to the top of the local heap by opening concerts for bands like Ronnie James Dio, Cheap Trick, Wishbone Ash, Foghat and many more.
"We were playing some big shows, we had enormous equipment and a full time road crew. We even had some pretty good originals but we were still starving," Dave recalls.
When Nasty Nasty broke up in 1985 Dave put the bass away and
forgot about it. He says, "I didn't have any desire to play on stage. I'd done it all
and had nothing left to give."
He spent the next 15 years just listening to jazz and funk and learning about the role bass plays in music. "Bass really makes things happen," he says. "If the crowd isn't moving then I'm not doing my job. The bass makes you "feel" the music."
One day he got a call from Ricky, whom he'd known from their early days, to put a band together to open up for the J.J. Muggler Band. So Dave and his old friend Gary Wilson from Melange formed the A.M.Woody band with local guitar virtuoso Vic Larocca.
"Yea, the Mugglers stole Vic from us," laughs Dave. "That was around the time when Ricky and Jan left to form Four Unplugged. Then Four Unplugged needed a bassist and Ricky called me again."
The rest is history. Dave's back on stage doing what he does best and having fun again. It has been a long time since he started his first band, The Bloody Daggers, when he was eight years old. He's been on stage ever since.
"I'm a true Leo," he says, "I need the excitement and attention. It's my nature." About Four Unplugged Dave says, "This is definitely the best group of people I've ever played with. This band has incredible talent and a great work ethic. It's also the most fun I've ever had in a band."