Born and raised in Atlanta / DeKalb County, Ben began playing guitar at age 13 learning songs by Eric Clapton (who was then in the group Cream) and Jimi Hendrix. Other major influences were the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and Yes. During the "Southern" period in the 70’s he took up slide guitar to cover tunes by Duane Allman and the Allman Brothers.

After attending Georgia Tech for 2 years he played professionally throughout the Southeast for 5 years in 4 different groups. All the groups were pop / rock / blues except one group, Rare Pleasure, which was soul / funk – Ben being the only white member. He has written over 50 songs of which 20 have been recorded. He also has arranged and produced other songwriters’ material and has been a recording technician. He has played with other recording artists such as: Head East, Tim Smith (who tours & records with Sheryl Crow) and the locally-renowned Glenn Phillips. Married once with 4 talented children he continues writing music and playing guitar because he loves to do it.