Robert McKinley:  

Biography: I was born August 30, 1953 in Cortez, Colorado and raised in the Four Corners area of Southwestern United States. Our family moved quite frequently and I attended most of grade school at Telluride, Colorado and junior high/high school at Moab, Utah. On January 25, 1974, I joined the U.S. Army and served two years with Bravo Battery, 6-52 Air Defense Artillery (ADA) HAWK in Kitzingen, Germany. I got out of the Army on June 21, 1976, and returned to Cortez, Colorado where I attended Auto Body Fender classes at the San Juan Basin Vocational Technical School and worked evenings as a cook for Ramada Inn. On December 29, 1976, I reenlisted in the Army and later served with Alpha Battery, 2-62 ADA HAWK in Neuheilenbach, Germany. During my tour, I met Jorge Arce, formenr guitarist for the acclaimed Latin rock group "Seguida" . Together with members of the German rock band "The Whipping Post", we formed a commercial rock band "Arce & McKinley". On January 1, 1981, I got out of the Army to pursue a career in music, starting with a concert tour in Europe. Shortly after our first concert, our band broke up due to our failure to reolve conflicting opinions over the band's future direction. Subsequently, German friends gave me work as a truck driver for Meerfeld Spedition in Weidenbach, Germany. A few months later, I took work as night cook for the Bitburg Air Force Base, NCO Club. In September 1981, I returned to Cortez, Colorado where I attended electronics classes at the San Juan Vocational Technical School and worked evenings as cook for the Ramada Inn. I also played guitar and sang at the Hotel Cortez and frequently sat in with local country bands on the weekends. In January 1982, I wrote and recorded two commercial rock songs at the Red Sneaker Studios in Poughkeepsie, New York which w...Expand for more