One day we gave a party at Sauer's, which was the big House spot. And the Chosen Few didn't show up until late. We had a whole room room waiting for the DJs to arrive - I mean this place was humongous. It was jam packed. The day after that, our partner, Eric Bradshaw, said, "This will never happen to us again." He was always the business mind of the whole thing. He went out and bought two Technics turntables and a mixer, brought it to my house and said, "You and Lori [Branch] are going to learn how to DJ." And that's how it started.

So there were three of you in Vertigo: Eric, Lori, you...

And another guy named Steve Moore.

How long did it take you to learn how to spin?

I guess I was a natural, you know, because it didn't take long at all. We already knew the music. We already had the music and learned how to match beats.

And how many years did the Vertigo parties last?

The Vertigo parties lasted until about 1982.

Then what did you do after that? Didn't you take a break for a while?

I took a break for a long while. I would call it my dark days. I got really caught up heavy in drugs. That's why I stopped DJing. The nightlife was catching up to me and it just wasn't right. So for about six years I was off the scene.

When you were away from the scene - is that when you started your furniture business?

Yes. That's when I started CSL Design and I started interior design work for nightclubs and restaurants. Right before that I was designing sound systems and lighting systems for nightclubs.

And when did you come back?

Early '90s. I left the straight market and started to attack the gay market in doing parties. I started at Fuse actually, which is now Ice Bar. I started doing Sunday night tea dances there. At the time, hip-hop was becoming a force in the gay market and we kinda lost it. Then I started with Club Reunion, which was a focus on House Music and dealing with an older gay crowd which I knew liked House Music. But to survive in this market, I had to incorporate hip-hop to pull the young ones and get the numbers to satisfy the bars.

My main issue - which is a problem with our whole scene here in Chicago - is that instead of people and bars focusing on the music and the event itself, we were forced to deal with bar owners who wanted only one thing: numbers at the bar. That was it. They didn't get the picture - that if your party was off the hook, and the sound system was off the hook and the atmosphere was off the hook, you never have to worry about the numbers at the bar.

Do you think the House audience is falling off now?

Well as you think that it may be falling off on the one end, you see on the other end that the interest is coming back. With your magazine, there are several people popping up with House parties. That shows you that the interest is booming again, but as far as the masses understanding what's going on, we haven't caught them yet. By playing at the Prophouse on a regular basis, I've learned from having conversations with the people. There's a big interest in House Music even in their market. But the main reason that the back room is so strong is because that's where all the bodies are.

Well, do you think there's any hope for the newer generation of the black gay community to get back their interest into House?

Yes, by the constant remixes of hip-hop and R&B songs that's coming out. I've proven that at the Prophouse. I studied the crowd and what I realized is that they already know the songs, so when they hear the songs in a House version, it doesn't immediately run them out the room. They know the lyrics. We've been focusing on playing a lot of R&B and hip-hop remixes.