I had been performing for a living for over 15 years with many of those years on the road. I was burned out and needed time to reevaluate my direction in life. Performing was always fun for me but the last several years had been difficult ones. I promised myself I would not put my career in the hands of others again unless they were the best around.

I knew I wanted to compose but there was no way to earn a living writing music at this point in my career. I went to work managing a brand new diner that was owned by my family. I was raised in the business so this type of work came naturally to me. With all of my equipment in my home, I was able to set up a small recording studio in the basement and a spinet piano in the living room.

After several months of not even touching my keyboards, I finally started to get the urge to compose again. Many times I would just sit and stare at the keys for several minutes, then almost without thought, I would start to play a brand new melody.

Sometimes it was good, sometimes bad, but I always kept a small recorder sitting on the piano just in case I played something that was worth keeping. A couple of good songs did come out of this period. They were "Saturday's Cruise" and "A Simple Melody". Both appear on the 2001 CD as "Millennium Kruise" and "Close Your Eyes".