Gary Hoey was a persistent little bugger. He heard the guitar's call in high school, when his sister's boyfriend was playing at the kitchen table. Hoey was mesmerised.
"Every time he came over, I'd be like, 'Hey, give me a lesson,'" Hoey said. "My sister would scream, 'I'm trying to hang out with my boyfriend!' But no matter if they hid in the basement or the attic, I'd find them.
" One of six children, Hoey knew his parents couldn't afford to send him to his dream school, Berklee College of Music in Boston. Since they didn't live far from campus, his mom suggested he hang out there and see what he could absorb. He befriended some musicians and took lessons from them at $10 a pop.
Then Hoey fulfilled every parent's nightmare: He dropped out of high school to play that damned rock 'n' roll. Although the usual consequence of that action is flipping burgers, Hoey lucked out. At 46, he isn't a household name but he has built the type of career where those-in-the-know worship his guitar chops.
When surf rock god Dick Dale is one of your biggest fans, something's right with your universe. Hoey has traded licks with everybody from Kenny Wayne Shepherd to Peter Frampton. These days, Hoey regrets dropping out of school, he said from his home in New Hampshire, where he lives with his wife and two children.
But after spending his junior year bouncing between vocational classes - masonry, carpentry, mechanics, appliance repair - Hoey couldn't imagine doing any of it for 40 hours a week. "By the time I was 15 years old, I knew what I was going to do for a living," he said. "I told my parents.
They, of course, thought I was totally crazy. I mean, what did I really know? I was stupid, but I was driven.
" So Hoey played in local bands, earned his GED and soaked up music in Boston's jazz, blues, punk and rock clubs. Mid-70s Boston was rife with rock 'n' roll success stories - Aerosmith had just released the breakthrough Toys in the Attic, Boston was touring with Black Sabbath and EMI had just signed the J. Geils Band.
In 1982, Hoey seemed next in line for the fame train. Ozzy Osbourne came through Boston trying to replace the recently deceased Randy Rhoads. After Hoey auditioned for Osbourne in Boston, the former leader of Black Sabbath flew Hoey to Los Angeles for further auditions.
Hoey made it to the final five but didn't land the gig. Still, it felt like a major break to him. "This was one of my idols.
As a musician, you're always asking yourself, 'Do I deserve to be successful? Do I have an original style?' Ozzy told me that I should move to California, that I could make it.
Ozzy told me that." Hoey obeyed the Oz and U-Hauled to California, where he developed a rock guitar sound predicated on versatility. He emits hints of B.
B. King or Jimi Hendrix in one song and a tint of Audioslave in the next. Though his only hit was 1993's Hocus Pocus, Hoey found his niche among fret-heads.
He has toured and played with the guitar world's giants: Joe Satriani, Ted Nugent, Steve Vai, etc. This year, Peavey will release a Gary Hoey signature amp. After recording 13 instrumental albums, Hoey sauntered back to the mike for his August release, American Made.
"I wasn't actually an instrumentalist starting out," he said. "If you play guitar and you want to get the girls, you have to sing. I learned that in high school.
" Hoey calls American Made an homage to "good ol' American rock 'n' roll.
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