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I can remember when I first started singing at the age of five.  Just about everybody in my family sang.  My uncle played the piano and sang tenor, my mother sang alto, my sister sang soprano, my grandmother was also an alto, and my father and grandfather just cheered us on.

My grandfather was the pastor of the Hanahan Baptist Church in Hanahan, SC.  He understood well the importance of music in a church.  There weren't very many services that went by in my early years where our family didn't sing some type of special song.  We were always singing at church. 

I can remember when I was about ten years old we began to travel to other churches within the state and sing at afternoon homecomings.  By then my sister had gotten married and yes, her husband sang.  He sang the bass, of course.  We would go sing at local revivals, some Friday nights, Saturday nights, and Sunday afternoons.  We were never away singing on Sunday morning or Sunday night because we were at our church.

I still remember attending my first southern gospel music concert in Walterboro, SC at the highschool auditorium when I was 12 years old.  I was a huge fan of southern gospel music and though we had quartets and mixed groups as guests at our church I had never gone to a concert outside of our church before.  Without a doubt my absolutely favorite group was The Hinsons.  At this time the group consisted of Chris Hawkins (now Freeman), Larry, Ronny, and Kenny Hinson.  That night in Walterboro it was none other than The Hinsons that were there in concert.  I was in awe to say the least.  I was already very familiar with their music and idolized Kenny Hinson.  That night I knew what I wanted to do with my life...be a gospel music singer. 

And so my journey began...