Hello, my name is Dave Griffin and I've been a Heepster since '72 when I first heard Demons & Wizards.

I currently live in Knoxville TN. I work at an HMO called Preferred Health Providers as a data processor. I am married to Kim, my dear, sweet bride of 13 years.

I am still my only child but we do have 3 dogs, Bowzer the daddy (in red), & Petey (in white) & Stripe (in black) his sons, believe it or not! They're my buddies! It seems like I spend the majority of my time in front of some sort of monitor, either at work, watching TV, or on the Net.

I've been on the info highway since June '97 and I owe it all to Heep. I had just bought the King Biscuit Live in San Diego CD and saw a reference in the liner notes to a Heep Website. I did some checking and sure enough there it was! I soon found the plethora of HeepStuff and Heepsters on the Web. I had no idea all this was here! Since I don't have a PC (yet), I got a lovely WebTV unit so I could get on the Net and here I am in all my Heepin' glory!

I immensely enjoy conversing with my fellow Heepster friends on the mail list and have especially liked meeting many of them at the HeepVentions. The highlights of those meetings has to be playing in the HeepJams. To be able to sing these amazing Heep tunes with other musicians who feel about those tunes the way I do is an incredible feeling!

Following are some semi-interesting facts about myself:

--Born 9/30/58 Bristol TN
--Married 9/27/86 Jefferson City TN
--Bachelor of Music in Church Music,Vocal emphasis, 1986,
Carson-Newman College TN
--Master of Arts in Religious Education,,1990,Southwestern Baptist
Theological Seminary TX
--Favorite Heep album;
'Live 73' followed by anything else from the Byron era.
--Favorite Heep song;
'July Morning' followed by anything else from the Byron era.
--Only Heep concert (unfortunately);
> 8/30/75, Johnson City TN on the RTF tour with BOC.

--Major musical influences from the 70'ss(just to name a few).
Uriah Heep (of course!), Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Nazareth, UFO, Blue Oyster Cult, Emerson, Lake, & Palmer, Kansas, Whitesnake, Rush, Jethro Tull, Allman Bros., Lynyrd Skynyrd, Montrose, Queen, REO Speedwagon, Led Zeppelin, Foghat, Aerosmith, Slade, Blackfoot, Grand Funk, Kiss, Judas Priest, Yes, Rainbow, Doobie Bros., Three Dog Night, Boston, Journey, and Foreigner.

--Bands through the 80's/90's that have caught my attention (there aren't many!
Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, Badlands, King's X, Galactic Cowboys, Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden, Atomic Opera, and Dream Theater.

--Prominent Christian bands/artists;
> Petra, WhiteHeart, DeGarmo & Key,Bride, Jonathan, Sacred Warrior, Kerry Livgren, John Elefante, Steve Taylor, Barren Cross, Deliverance, Jerusalem, Red Sea and Visible Faith (I'm sure!)

--Since I am a vocalist, I must list my Top Ten favorite rock singers.
1. David Byron
2. David Coverdale
(Actually this is a toss-up,I think they are both the best at what they did/do, Byron as a showman with incredible range and charisma & Coverdale as the best soulful blues rock singer of our time).
3. Paul Rodgers
4. Dan McCafferty
5. Ian Gillan
6. Ronnie James Dio
7. Steve Perry
8. Sammy Hagar
9. Greg Lake
10. David Pack

--Sports stuff;
I'm a huge sports fan and particuarly like the NFL, MLB, & the NBA. The accompanying picture shows 2 of my favorite sports teams, the Green Bay Packers and Baltimore Orioles,(that's actually a Uriah Heep hat I'm wearing, but you can't really tell). I'm also a huge University of Tennessee fan. Hey, I'm from Tennessee and live in Knoxville, what did you expect? I have the Direct TV sports packages and I'm able to watch most anything I care to,It's great! I also love to play basketball and I have an extra mean outside jump shot.

--Mostly unknown fact about myself (untiil now);
I was born with a smile so big the doctors didn't know which end to spank!

Now that I've completely bored you to death, let me finish by saying that for me, in my very 'umble but not quite so very 'eavy opinion, Uriah Heep was the best ever. Their music meant so much to me as a teenager. It gave me a place to go that was completely mine. It was like their music was written just for me. I still love listening to classic Heep very much and keeping up with them on the Net. Hey, what other band would I EVER go to these lengths for? There will never be another like my Uriah Heep. I will indeed keep on Heepin' on!!!`

Thanx a Heep,

Dave "You're never to old to have a happy childhood" Griffin