I remember a conversation I had with my folks in the summer of 1972. The topic was my so-called future and what I intended to do now that I had graduated from college. Being both loving and liberal-minded, they told me, "We don't care what career you choose, we just want you to be happy." I breathed a sigh of relief as I furtively prepared to accept the offer I had just received to go on the road with a Rock band. They did offer one caveat, however. Both were in education... Dad a professor at the College of William & Mary; Mom a school social worker. "Our only advice," they said, "is, don't go into education."

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I managed to heed that advice for the next three decades as I rambled from Nashville to L.A. to New York to take jobs in the music industry. But in the Fall of my 50th year I got the teaching bug and helped a friend design an off-campus study program for college students who wanted to explore careers in the music business. For 10 years at The Contemporary Music Center on the island of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, and most recently at Dark Horse Institute in Franklin, Tennessee, I have proclaimed a rock and roll gospel of beauty and love from my soapbox at the intersection of art, commerce and spirituality.

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I believe my parents were both disappointed and proud.