 When he was 17 his mother submitted a tape of one of his original songs to the talent contest of local Top 40 radio station WCAO, in which he took first prize and won a typewriter, a stack of records, and a Vox electric guitar.He moved to San Francisco in 1972 and worked painting houses, singing in the streets, and working behind the counter at a Berkeley record store with future bandmate and Earth Quake keyboardist Gary Phillips.The following year, he was signed to Matthew "King" Kaufman's Beserkley Records.