DICK DALE: My first instrument was a ukulele and then in those days, we didn't have the money for it so I was reading in the back of a Superman magazine. It said "Sell so many jars of Noxzema skin cream, send us the money, and we'll send you the uke," so I banged on the doors in Quincy, Massachusetts while it was snowing every night, and then I got them my ukulele and I started strumming on the stupid thing and that was it. That started it. And then I got my first flat-top guitar out in the swamps back in Massachusetts in Whitman, Mass., I head a bunch of people strumming, went into their building, and the guy had an old flat-top and he goes, "I'll sell it to you for eight dollars."

And they gave me the title "King of the Surf Guitar", and it was the surfers that I was surfing with. But my music actually stemmed from Gene Krupa because the way he got his heavy fat sounds, so back in 1955 when I met Leo Fender, he became like a dad to me, and so I started blowing up everything he had. Then he goes, "Why do you have to play so loud?" and he couldn't figure it out because my strings were 60-gauge strings, you know, they go, "Whoa! Those are like telephone wires." So what happened was every time I blew up an amplifier, he couldn't understand why, and when he stood in the middle of 4,000 people he goes, "Now I know what Dick's trying to tell me." So he made the first output transformer, 85 watts peaking at 100 watts, and then we created the first 15" Lansing D130 and then when I plugged it in, he called it "The Showman" because I used to slide across, leap up the stage and land on my knees and slide on the floor, and he goes, "Oh you're such a showman." So, that started it. I became, they said, "The Father of Heavy Metal", and then we created the Dual Showman because I wanted twin 15's, then he built a 100-watt output transformer, peaking at 180 watts. No one has ever duplicated that yet. It favors highs, lows, and mediums, so Leo, he took that secret to the grave with him, God bless him, but he gave me the last of the seven of those things, and they're the Dick Dale Dual Showman amplifiers, so that's what I play through. I've been playing through them since the '50s and that's how that all started.

Then I showed Jimmy how to play a ukulele and then country music and now he's with Fender Stratocasters and Fender's spending a whole big thing on him.

DAN AGOSTO: How does that feel to have your own guitar?

JIMMY DALE: Uh, it feels really nice like really cool and stuff, you know.

DAN AGOSTO: You got a good teacher?

JIMMY DALE: Yeah.

DICK DALE: He matches me note for note on a Fender Strat and then we have our Martin acoustics that we like to play to, the electric, so there's a lot of beautiful guitars out there that people, you know, they say, you know, what is your favorite and everything like that, but every guitar has it's own voice and we love them. There's a lot of them that we like but we prefer the neck on outr strats.

DAN AGOSTO: What sort of advice would you give for a young guitarist today getting into playing?

DICK DALE: You know what I'd tell them? I'd tell them this. First of all, keep your body clean. Keep your mind clean. Keep your soul clean. Don't put any drugs in your body. That's why doing what I'm doing. I just got through doing 38 concerts in 42 days. I'll be 69, May 4th, and if I can do that, I've never had a drug in my body, I've never put alcohol in body, and I never smoke cigarettes any more, and in that way I haven't eaten red -- Oh boy, I'm going to get sued.

Also, do not listen to all the other guys that are out there saying, "Oh man, you should do this...," you know, "...and you should play like this." You play from your heart to the people, and when you see them smile, you know you're doing the right thing. Don't listen to the other guys because why aren't they working? How come you're working and they're giving you advice? And the other advice I would give you is this. When you want to get an opinion from somebody, don't look at all the toys they have because they can be making payments. Ask them how much cash they have in their bank. Do not sign contracts with all these big major labels that are going to put you on the cover of these famous magazines because once you do, you're going to give up all your rights to your music. You go out there, play, save your money, make your own CD, sell it when you play, and you'll end up making more money in the end, and you will own your own rights to your music. Don't be so quick to give it away because you want to ride around in a thousand-dollar-a-day bus.