It’s been many years now, but I will always remember the day that my life changed and I knew that I wanted to play music. It was the summer of ’89; I had just graduated from Maui High and had been chosen from several hundred students who had submitted a painting (I was a painter back then) to travel to Moscow to paint the "Maui to Moscow" mural. The mural was a gift of peace and aloha from the children of America to the children of the U.S.S.R.



Keep in mind, in 1987, the Cold War was not yet over, Russia was still a super-power, and we were supposed to be "enemies". But to children, politics don’t matter; the children of the U.S.S.R. were potential new "friends".



After two weeks of painting the mural in a village called Pereslavl, we went back to Moscow to do some diplomacy and make some friends.
An arrangement was made for the seven American children to visit a Soviet school to talk about peace and friendship.



We arrived at the school and entered a large gymnasium that had about 2,000 Soviet students sitting in the bleachers, faces fixed like stone, dead silent. You could hear a pin drop in there.



An announcement was made saying, " These children are American, and they want to be your friends."



The room was extremely quiet and very tense. We took turns speaking and got no response from the students.



At that moment, I picked up a guitar and belted out "Twist and Shout" by The Beatles and the whole place erupted. It was like a million balloons were let loose. They came running out of the stands singing, clapping, and laughing. They were transformed by the power of music. We all became friends, exchanged addresses, and made plans to visit again. This day was the day that I realized that music could overcome all. The language barrier was broken down, all the fear and doubt went right out the window. All of a sudden we were just a bunch of kids who liked music.



Music has the power to heal and most of all to bring people together. That’s the reason I am still a professional musician all these years later.