Ron was born the same year Leo Fender invented the electric bass guitar, but he was acutely unaware of that fact. The first musical experience he recalls was listening to Polka music on the car radio while bouncing down dusty gravel roads in the back seat of a '51 Ford, with the attendant car sickness. Other unfortunate and inadvertent musical influences included Lawrence Welk and Guy Lombardo, which also resulted in mild nausea. Meanwhile, a new form of music was gaining popularity among white youth, and also involved bouncing in the back seats of automobiles. Still, the car radio did not play that music, which by that time was being called Rock 'n Roll. The death of his father's sometimes flight instructor in 1959 while transporting Rock 'n Rollers from Clear Lake, IA to Fargo, ND was not remembered by Ron as the day the music died. It hadn't even lived yet.

His first inkling that music held more allure than the bland, white experience he had known, came when Jefferson Airplane appeared on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. As the camera zoomed in on bassist Jack Casady during the guitar solo in "Somebody to Love", a seed was planted. Had the cameraman been given better direction, he would have put the lead guitarist in his shot, and Ron would now be a pig farmer in Winnebago county..

The music began playing in Ron's head in early 1970, but it took several years for it to finally reach his fingers. Ron first picked up a bass guitar during his Junior year of college, but set it back down. Several more false starts ensued before getting down to the business of teaching himself to play the bass. Sometime after learning the fundamentals of bass, the groove started getting deeper. A stint in the Muse band introduced him to black music, which felt more organic and universal that what passed before. A corner was turned, musically speaking.

In the thirty-some years since his first experimentation in the low end arts, he developed a basic understanding of "the groove", and is one bass player who actually listening to the drummer. In that time, he has played publicly in about twenty bands, playing Rock, Blues, Reggae, Funk, Country, and even "inspirational" music. With Burnin' Sensations, he is able to tap into that musical lineage.

• Iowa Blues Boys: 1977 - 1981
  There has to be a first band, and this was Ron's first. Everyone else in the band was experienced, and by the end
  
• Philharmonics: 1981
  With namesakes Phil Reily and Phil Dean, the band played for one hour on one night.
  
• Bentwood: 1981 - 1982
  Rockers playing Black and Blue (Sabbath and Oyster Cult) music. He learned the pain of carrying Hammond organs up stairs.
  
• Split Limit: 1982 - 1983
  A poppier, updated version of Bentwood without the Hammond organ
  
• Muse Band: sporadically in the 80s
  With Iowa Reggae Pioneer, John Muse, I learned that not all music was white.
  
• Mother John: 1984
  This Space Cowboy band played the original Mudhole gig
  
• Hubert Temba Experience
  Hubert was the Tanzanian Devil. Hubey is the Kenny G. of Reggae.
  
• Sweetooth: 1985 - 1988
  with (one of) Boone's own Elvises, Larry Kelley. Country, 50s Rock and Roll, and contemporary pop.
  
• Aardvaark: 1986
  College rock, first in alphabetic order
  
• Zoot Suit: 1987 - 1990
  Last in alphabetic order; with funky farmboy, Erick Hovey
  
• Lil' Frankie & the Funx: 1989
  First band with Frank
  
• Band X: 1989
  non-namebrand rock
  
• Mel's Diner: 1989 - 1992
  Popular Blues/Funk/Rock group, always a party!
  
• Polish SRV Project (PSRVP or RSVPP): 1996
  first band with drummer Tim Helgeson
  
• Extractors: 1992 - 1994
  psychedelic Reggae grooves with Sundogs alumni
  
• Medulla Mas:1996 - 1997
  More Medulla, with Grooveyard and Sundogs alumni
  
• UNABand: 1996 - 1998
  Terrorist before terrorism was cool!
  
• Ed and Red's Band: 1997 - 1998
  Atmospheric, textural music
  
• FJB Project: 1999 - 2000
  (Funk, Jazz, & Blues) - aka PB&J Project with Tim and Frank, seeking a female vocalist
  
• Shakin' Katies: 2000 - 2003
  It's what was shakin' at the time. When the shakin' stopped, it became Burnin' Sensations
• Saturday At First: 2001 - 2004
  aka, Saturday Night At First United (SNAFU)
  

• Sunshine Daydreams was a so-called band with an abundance of hippie idealism and little, if any, musical ability. The music was characterized by pseudo-melodic noodling over a tentative, shaky rhythm section. But it wasn't all for naught, as these were pioneering efforts in what became known as the New Age Punk movement.

• The next band employed the Blues idiom, introducing a nearly discernible musical structure that had been previously absent. The Blues Devils achieved commercial success by agreeing to vacate the stage early in the night in return for cold, hard cash.

• Then came the spectacularly unsuccessful art rock band, Decoupage. Ample amounts of pretense failed to compensate for lack of rockability. The faux French accents contributed to their demise, as they were soon forced to surrender to the Germans.

• Ron then traded this arty pretention for punk rock attitude and a fake British accent in Fetus. They played each other's instruments to mask any residual musicianship that had been accumulated. As the worst singer in the band, Ron, aka Festus, was annointed the lead vocalist. But Fetus never went "full term".

• But Ron's true love was bass, and he longed to return to the bottom. By now, Eighties music was being played on the radio - for the first time. He donned a fake poodle wig and a codpiece to hit the stage with Sausage Jack. On the plus side, no fake accents were required, but the wig itched intolerably and the codpiece got a little too familiar with the wearers.

• Reggae music was beginning to filter into the rural states. They drank thermoses of special tea prepared by Rub-A-Dub's herbalist and sank deeply into Reggae grooves. The band played exclusively in the backwoods venues of Boone County, emerging from their trance hours after the gigs.

• Then came the missing years - with Elvis. Ron was hired by a Boone resident that, only later he discovered was not, in fact, Elvis, who had died some years previous. Takin' Care of Business never played Vegas, as Ron was promised.

• A folk music experiment with a deceptively naughty name came next, The F-Holes. The shaved bald spot on Ron's head lasted longer than the musical collaboration. In the end, the Folk Choir concept failed, and all twenty acoustic guitars were packed up and put away in closets. Even the catchy band name couldn't save this pathetic attempt from obscurity.

• A hastily assembled band called Brain Donors came online to explain away the shaved scalp.

• But fate, a cowboy hat, and a late night encounter at an interstate rest stop lead Ron to the legendary Katherine "Shakin' Katie" Wuornos, who recruited him to go on the road. The Country music gigs on the Redneck circuit always ended up at either a truck stop, weigh station, or rest area afterward, where Katie would leave their company to "mingle with the locals". Wherever we went, the locals knew Katie, and were itchin' to mingle with her in their recreational vehicles or cab of their eighteen-wheelers. One night after a gig, Katie announced that she was relocating to Florida, and please call her Ailene. It was time to get off the road.

• Burnin' Sensations, a band of non-migrating Gypsies, who deprogrammed the road-weary bass player. Gone now are the truck stop liaisons and the rest area respites.