Tim Reynolds - Early Years

Early Years

Reynolds was born in Wiesbaden, Germany, where his father, a career military man, was stationed. He says he hails from nowhere, because the family moved so often. Some of the places the family lived include Germany, a farm in Indiana, then on an army base in Alaska, then to Kansas, then to Missouri, where he lived longer than any other place until he was old enough to move away as an adult. Both parents were extremely devout Christians and he says he grew up with Christian music all around him. However, his older sister owned some albums from The Beatles, which he says, even as a very young child, he loved instantly, playing air guitar to their music.

Upon reaching adolescence, Reynolds was able to learn guitar and electric bass guitar, so he could perform in the family's local Church choir three times a week, with the secret added bonus that he was able to begin experimenting with learning what eventually became second nature; adding riffs infused with rock and roll, funk and soul music by the age of twelve. Upon graduation from high school, he moved away from home, and after moving from the Midwestern States, landed in Charlottesville, Virginia, finding jazz, jazz fusion, and experimental music enthusiasts there. Reynolds found the college town a more welcoming environment for him to branch out musically there than in any of his previous homes, and added to his experimentation other musical influences to his repertoire, including sixties psychedelic rock, citing some of his early influences as Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana and Led Zeppelin.

By the 1990s, he had formed the "Tim Reynolds Three" or TR3, and had added other influences to his repertoire; music from Nine Inch Nails, Bob Marley and Marilyn Manson. In addition, he continued to learn to play other instruments, including the sitar, sarod, the mandello, keytar, tubular bells and other "exotic" instruments that are not commonly seen in Western rock artists of the rock and roll musicians of the time.