I’ve been a band leader since 1979 when my first group, The Idle Rich, opened for The Weirdos at this biker bar in the hippie ridden Chino Hills, about thirty miles east of Los Angeles.  As a kid, art was my calling, the visual arts: graphic design, figurative sculpting, painting.  But music took the front burner soon enough, after Mike Palm of Agent Orange mentored me on guitar. He taught me how to play the necessary buzz saw chords in order to throw a band together.  Since then it’s been up hill, down hill, sideways and inside out in music.

Fast forward through the wild early 80’s, where I joined local soul/punk group The Electric Tombstones (with Dan McGough, who later recorded and toured with Social Distortion and Tom Waits) and The Pontiac Brothers (headed by The Gun Club’s guitarist Ward Dotson). In 1986 I began a one-off recording project which turned into Claw Hammer, recording with Interscope, Epitaph Records and SFTRI.  Following that I began my own group Jon Wahl and the Amadans.  I also joined other groups as a sideman playing tenor saxophone with East L.A.s own Ollin and with Slowrider.

I’ve had the honor and pleasure to work with the likes of Ry Cooder, Wayne Kramer (MC5), The Pogues, Mark Mothersbaugh (DEVO), El Vez, Mudhoney, Moris Tepper (Captain Beefheart guitarist), Little Willie G (Thee Midniters), Ozomatli,  Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Andre Williams, Pink Mountaintops, The Icarus Line, Keith Morris (The Circle Jerks, Black Flag, Off!), The Bassholes, The Muffs, The Humpers, Bad Religion, et al, and with producers Brett Gurewitz, Sally Browder and Jim Dickinson.

That said, what musical education I’ve had was done in the trenches, learning by ear, by calloused fingertips, those twenty dollar front porch lessons, and those glorious three years studying classical piano at LACC whose alumni include Eric Dolphy and Charles Bukowski.

I’ve also had the pleasure to do music for television and with very talented independent film makers and look forward to more work in these realms.

Yep.