My wife Joan, and I, met in the summer of 1961 in the Catskill Mountains, in upstate New York, at the Laurels Hotel and Country Club. She was working as a counselor, and I was playing in the Latin Band. We were married the following year.

Joan has been my greatest support and ally through the myriad challenges in life, and really, I must say, that she is a part of all my music. Together we’ve raised three wonderful children, each of whom has charted their own path and followed their own dreams. We have seven grandchildren who make everything worthwhile.