That simple thought is behind something new I’ve been creating called Senior Rock — The Soundtrack for Getting Older.

The songs are about what we’re actually living now: our changing bodies, grandchildren, relationships, loss, independence, prescription bottles, technology, AI, the job market—and the determination to keep living life independently on our own terms.

Some are funny. Some are serious. Some stir the heart. But they all come from the same place: Real life.

A New Chapter: Signed With Verdict Music

At 77, I’ve signed with Verdict Music as both a recording artist and songwriter. The Massachusetts-based independent label and publisher with worldwide distribution through SONY Music plans to release my original song “Merry Christmas, My Boy” for the 2026 holiday season. Read the Press Release

Senior Rock helped open this door. Writing about the experiences of my generation led me toward stories that actually connect generations: first love that lasts a lifetime, a grandfather’s concern about the world his granddaughter will inherit as the climate changes, a young adult struggling with uncertainty,  and a father keeping Christmas traditions alive for his family while grieving his nineteen-year-old son who died in war. The subjects have grown, but the foundation remains the same: telling human stories through music.

Listen to Senior Rock

If you’d like to hear what Senior Rock sounds like, I’ve put the growing collection together in one place on YouTube:

Listen to Senior Rock on YouTube

Individual Senior Rock songs are available for download on Bandcamp, with new tracks being added as they’re released.

I enjoyed these tracks.   Really well done from top to bottom:  writing, performing, production. Peter Hay, Twin Vision Radio Promotion

Watch Senior Rock on NBC Connecticut’s CT Live

I joined Abbey Carnivale to talk about Senior Rock, creativity and the new stories we have to tell as we grow older.

Watch the CT Live interview.

From a Patient’s Experience to a National Conference

Christopher Carlin, a Hartford HealthCare executive and president of the National Association of Rehabilitation Providers and Agencies, featured “Knee Replacement Blues” during his opening presentation at the organization’s national conference.

He connected my recovery story and the song’s humor to the patient experiences behind rehabilitation professionals’ work. Afterward, he reported enthusiastic feedback and questions about sharing the song more broadly.

Hartford HealthCare has also invited me to share my story and music at its November 6 rehabilitation celebration, expected to welcome approximately 400 attendees.

For Me, It’s Coming Full Circle

Music was where my professional life began. From 1970 to 1980, I worked at London Records as an A&R executive, producer, engineer and director of recording studio operations.

During those years, I served as Executive Producer of prolific singer-songwriter Leslie Pearl,  produced  iconic house band of Austin’s Armadillo World Headquarters Greezy Wheels inducted into the Austin Music Awards Hall of Fame and handled production for jazz legend Erroll Garner. I had the memorable opportunities to work in various capacities with artists including The Rolling Stones, The Moody Blues, Al Green, Dave Edmunds and Eric Clapton with John Mayall and The Bluesbreakers.

When London Records was sold to PolyGram and I left the record business in 1980, I thought that chapter of my life was over.

It wasn’t.

Music eventually found me again.

I returned to performing and producing with The Garrison Project, playing venues including CBGB’s, The C-Note, DownTime and Acme Underground and headlining Toad’s Place. I also performed my original songs at Nashville’s legendary Bluebird Cafe.

And then life moved on again.

From Grandfathering to Gadgets—and Back to Music

Years later, becoming a grandfather led me to write Heartstrings Across Miles: A Guide to Long Distance Grandparenting, a book about staying meaningfully connected with grandchildren when miles separate you. I was thrilled  that it was featured in AARP Magazine.

Then came Geezers, Gadgets and Gizmos, which Alyson and I created around another question: What can make life better as we get older?

We started reviewing products and technology that can help older adults remain independent, connected, active and engaged.

Somewhere along the way, I realized there was another part of getting older that deserved attention.

The soundtrack.

We can turn on the radio and hear the songs we grew up with. I still love those songs.

But where are the new songs about the lives we’re living today?

So I started writing them.

Senior Rock Was Born

I didn’t sit down one morning and decide to invent a new genre. It happened one song at a time. I started writing about:

• getting a knee replaced and discovering there really is life on the other side of the pain.
• being a long-distance grandfather and learning that miles don’t have to diminish the relationship.
• independence and refusing to let a number determine how much living is left to do.
• the growing collection of prescription bottles that somehow becomes part of the morning routine.
• losing someone you love and finding a reason to keep going when that person is no longer beside you.
• returning to the job market with decades of experience and discovering that experience can suddenly be treated as something you’re supposed to hide.
• two people looking at each other after all those years and realizing that although they’ve changed, the fire inside hasn’t gone out.

Then there were songs about technology, AI, the strange things that can happen as our bodies change, and the everyday absurdities that become funnier when you’ve lived long enough to appreciate them.

That’s when I realized these weren’t simply individual songs. They were stories about what it feels like to get older. And there was a common thread running through all of them:

We’re different now, but we’re still here. We’re still curious. We’re still laughing. We’re still loving. We’re still living.

That’s when I started calling it:

Senior Rock — The Soundtrack for Getting Older

Why Senior Rock Belongs on Geezers, Gadgets and Gizmos

To me, the connection couldn’t be more natural. Geezers, Gadgets and Gizmos is about the things that can help us live better as we get older. Senior Rock is about what it feels like to be the person doing the living. Both come from the same belief: getting older isn’t a reason to disengage from life.

It’s not about pretending we’re still 25. And Senior Rock isn’t nostalgia or oldies. I’m not trying to recreate the music of my past or write songs about the person I used to be. I’m writing songs I couldn’t have written until I’d lived long enough to understand them. That’s what makes coming back to music after all these years feel less like a comeback and more like coming full circle.

I started my life making music. Now I’m making music about the life I’ve lived.