Rock School's in Session

Master Riffer

The prodigy they happened to find for Rock School was 12-year-old C.J. Tywoniak, who is a master on the guitar. Now 15, with long gothic hair that strays over his face, C.J.'s current goal is to attend the Berklee College of Music, and he's studying with a professor from there to try to get good enough to be accepted.

He also has his own band. "Sometimes we play little things here and there," he says. "Right now we're just trying to get tight and define our sound. We have classic rock roots, but we've taken more of a metal influence. Some of the stuff came to me through Paul." Certainly, he adds, "if I never went to his school, I wouldn't have the long hair I have now."

Sitting at the other end of a long table, scribbling on magazines with Sharpies, Green looks up distractedly and says, "I'd have long hair, but I'd look like [the comedian] Gallagher." Then he jabs, "You know how some musicians play with a bunch of beer bottles lined up on stage? C.J. has a bunch of juice boxes lined up with Elmo on them."

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