Michael and I began our musical journeys at a very young age. I began singing lessons with Mrs. Owen when I was four. and Michael started a couple years later when he turned four. And that's where our lifelong musical collaboration began. There were always musical instruments around the house when were kids, so it was just natural for us to bang on a piano, pound on a drum or blow on a bugle as part of our regular playtime. We sang together often around the house, and also at public recitals and nursing home concerts with Mrs. Owen. And as kids, we listened to lots of music on the living room HiFi set. When I was ten and Michael was eight, he got a guitar for Christmas and I got a set of drums. Two years later, he was the drummer and I was the guitarist. Though I've racked my brain to try and remember how that swap occurred, I have no recollection of how it happened. But we jammed around the house, learned Beatles songs and enjoyed our musical interaction. A couple years after that, we started cutting yards and were making our own money. Michael still had the old cardboard drumset, but he wanted a couple things to expand his percussive horizons. He saved a little money and bought a single conga drum with stand, and a pair of hihat cymbals. The he started saving for his first real drumset. In the meantime, the old cardboard drumset finally fell apart and Michael was left with only his conga and hihat cymbals. Not to be deterred, the conga and the cymbals became his drumset. The conga had a stand but the hihats didn't. So Michael created a hihat stand out of truly unconventional components. Imagine this...a typical Christmas tree stand with a floundering gig standing up in it...with the hihat cymbals slipped over the point of the gig and held in place by an automotive hose clamp. After a few months, he bought a ride cymbal with a proper stand and added it to his interim kit. I had a Greco electric guitar, a Fender Champ Amp, two cables and a wah-wah pedal and boy did we jam! In the living room, under the carport, on the wharf at Aunt Mary's bay house...anywhere we could take our gear, we jammed! I wish I had pics or movies of those early jam sessions, 'cause it was our first experience with raw improvisation and where we learned to just "let it all out"! Then Michael got his first real drumset. I'm pretty sure it was a Pearl kit and that some of it is still at Mom's house. That's when he really started to play. Before I knew it, we were playing Grand Funk and Steppenwolf tunes with our cousin Ricky Schaffer on bass, taking our jammimg to another level. Then came Zeppelin, and he copied the Bonham parts lick for lick. I could play, but not like Michael in those days. He'd listen to a record, sit down and play the parts exactly. And when he started high school, he was also a percussionist in the McGill-Toolen band which contributed to his abilities as well. I was a senior when Michael was a freshman...I graduated in '73 and went on to play with a new group of jammimg partners. Michael and I still jammed often, but he spent more time playing with high school buddies Rick Armstrong, Ricky Schaffer, Tony Oberkirk and others I can't readily recall. I moved to Memphis in '75 and Michael followed about a year and a half later. We played together around town for awhile, and then I got a road gig and Michael moved back to Mobile. Fast forward a couple years, and Michael and I were jamming together again, on the road with Pluto Jones, playing lots of Eastern U.S. bars and hotels. Fast forward again...we both found ourselves back in Mobile playing in different bands. He was with Excalibur and I was with The Tomatoes and then with Comeback, and we both played all around the Gulf Coast area. In '84 I moved to Florida, Michael stayed in Mobile and we only played together a couple times a year until his untimely death in 2022. We did stay close over the years, but mostly due to our living in different cities hundreds of miles apart, we never again had the opportunity to be in a band together. Over many years and many bands, I had the good fortune to play with some really great drummers, and one of the very best was my brother Michael Arata! An afterthought...many times during the last 20-30 years of his life, Michael gave selflessly of his time and talent to stage many benefit events for friends who were ill or down on their luck. He was truly a caring individual and loyal friend to many, as well as a great talent. And when it came time for Mobile to stage a benefit for Michael, there was an overflow crowd, an overflow of love and an overflow of giving at The Blues Tavern on a Saturday in April 2022! Thanks Mobile! Love ya Michael...we'll jam again someday!