How I got into this...

I started singing karaoke about five years ago. There was a karaoke host in Madison by the name of jOHNNIE, who ran Koool Karaoke. Ok, a hokey name, but Johnnie is about the nicest guy you could imagine. He is a very caring guy and not surprisingly, he had quite a following.

From Johnnie, I learned that a good karaoke host is compassionate and supportive Karaoke is not about contests and winning and having the best voice. Karaoke is about having fun.

Johnnie is the guy that gave me the moniker "John the Revelator". Where did he get it? From the Blues Brothers' movie. Why did he attach that name to me? I dunno. I like the blues, I like jazz... He just called me up to the stage one day, and called me that. Hey, that's cool. I liked it. Funny, he asked me twice afterward whether it was ok if he called me that.

When I go to sing karaoke, I use this name for signing up. There are usually a few people by the name of John, and the name avoids confusion. (That, of course, is the rational explanation. To be honest, I use the name because I like it!)

So Johnnie taught me a bit about what karaoke means, and Johnnie gave me a nickname. He also inadvertently got me started on the path to DJ-ing. There was a song that I wanted to do, called "Steamroller Blues", written by James Taylor. He had it in his book, ut the CD was unfortunately messed up, so it wouldn't play. Drat!

I had done the song at karaoke a few times before, and I had started to make the song my own... adding a little scat, working the rhythm, the dynamics, etc. Since I couldn't sing it from his copy, I bought myself a copy, and proceeded to make the song and the CD my own.

That was my first CD. Once I had bought the first one, it became a little easier to visit karaoke.com and pick up a few more. Before I knew it, I had a dozen or so CDs.

To be continued...