Just down the road from my family home in Bamberg, SC was a horse arena. When I attended my first rodeo, I knew watching was not near as much fun as competing, and I wanted to ride in the bull riding competition. I attended Lyle Sankey’s Rodeo School in Olive Branch, Mississippi in my 20’s to learn the ropes (no pun intended) and ended up competing in rodeos across the southeast. I fell off more bulls than I rode, but I wanted to be a cowboy and this was as close as I could get. I rode until I was in my thirties, when I broke three ribs competing in a gay rodeo in Atlanta.

And with the cowboy lifestyle comes country music and beer in their natural setting: the Honky Tonk. I learned to two-step and line dance, all which would come to be helpful when I was hired as a DJ at a club: the R&R Corral (aka Southramp) in Greenville, SC. The club’s dance instructor ghosted us, and I ended up teaching dance and DJing, and eventually also managing the bar.