“I discovered Paul Kossoff from the late, great Pete Way, who is known and loved as the longtime bassist for UFO. A little known and fun fact about me is that when I was 17, I auditioned to replace Michael Schenker in UFO. I didn’t get the gig, but I did meet Pete. He was very kind to me, and we maintained a friendship throughout the years.

On the day I auditioned, Pete said my vibrato reminded him of Paul Kossoff. I said, ‘What’s a ‘Paul Kossoff?” He says, ‘You’ve never heard of Free? With Paul Rodgers, Simon Kirke, and Andy Fraser?’ I said, ‘No!’ He then proceeded to make me a cassette of his favorite Free songs, and the first song on the tape was Walk in My Shadows.”