My first relationship with music must have been in utero. From way before me, my mother loved playing the piano, especially Mozart and Boogie Woogie. Later, she would play me to sleep at night with that beautiful piano. My parents were always adjacent to music because they were radio broadcasting people. They met at WOWO in Fort Wayne, Ind. She had her own talk show and he was the engineer but eventually became one of the earliest disc jockeys. History note: back in the day, radio stations only channeled the entertainment that was coming from the big networks. A smaller station, like the one my Dad switched over to, didn’t have access to the big shows so he just started spinning whatever records he could come up with.
After we moved to California, Dad started a company that manufactured automated radio station equipment. He brought home this amazing jukebox and loaded it up with 45’s. I couldn’t get enough of Sam Cooke and Elvis Presley.
Grandma Schafer finally convinced Dad to put me into a Catholic School which, besides completely traumatizing me, also got me into a choral choir. I hadn't ever heard myself sing like that…..kinda like that little mousy nun in Sister Act that busts out. There was such a deep good feeling and a couple of guys near me were impressed too. Who woulda thunk little Mickey had that resonance and power.
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