At the age of three when her grandmother showed her how to play 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' on the piano, Terri Lane knew that she loved music. From then on, anytime she visited her "Gram," Terri would run down to that old piano in the basement and start "banging out" melodies she'd heard on the radio. It didn't take long for her Uncle Tom to start calling her 'Schroeder'. And it didn't take long for Terri to start making up her own little songs. "I made my mom crazy constantly singing and dancing through the house. I was hyperactive so I was always moving."

By the time she was seven, she was being turned on by "...so many cool bands like the James Gang, Steppenwolf, Hendrix and of course the British invasion - Clapton, Zeppelin and Bad Company. But the one record that awakened the baby metalhead in me was Iron Butterfly's. I played that thing 'til it wore out." The 70s were a very exciting time for new music and there was lots of it being played in Terri's house, "...but nobody else in the family was musical. I was the oddball." At eleven Terri started her first real training; "...voice lessons from this poor teacher who had all he could do just to keep me sitting down for more than five seconds. And I didn't want any part of those dumb folk songs. I wanted to ROCK!" When she turned fourteen, this same teacher, "...bless his soul," decided to give her a chance to perform a solo in the annual high school Spring concert. When the big night came, the auditorium was filled to capacity; more than nine hundred people. As she started her rendition of a familiar pop tune, Terri noticed a woman sitting in the front row smiling at her. Spontaneously, Terri took her hand and sang the song to the woman. When it was over, there was a standing ovation and our teenage future rocker burst into tears. This was a defining moment in Terri's life. "I was never the same after that night." Terri's incredible love affair with singing had begun. It was to become her greatest joy, but also her refuge during years of deep pain.

It was Terri's hippie chick mom who first exposed her to all this great rock music, and Terri remembers feeling loved and appreciated by her, but her mother also had a long struggle with alcohol and drug demons which translated into years of horrible abuse for Terri. Thanks to a perceptive guidance counselor who alerted authorities, Terri was finally removed from her hostile home at age fifteen. Some of the emotional scars will always remain, but by the time her mom died, the two had made peace and Terri now holds only love and forgiveness in her heart, and wishes her mom could be here to celebrate her achievements as an artist and as a human being.

The next two years brought a new voice teacher into the picture. He became Terri's mentor, encouraging her to develop her talent and expand her horizons. She was asked to become a member of Connecticut's esteemed All-State Choir after she earned uncommonly high scores during her audition. By graduation Terri had earned a music scholarship to the University of Connecticut, but her desire to be a rock singer prompted her to turn it down. "I was young and tired of singing what other people wanted me to sing, so during the next year I joined my first rock band, started performing in musical theater and did my first studio gig."

For more than ten years Terri worked on the live stage and in the studio, gaining valuable knowledge and seasoning her voice. She now looked like the rocker she always wanted to be, complete with leather pants and outrageous, spiky, bleached hair. She wanted to start writing her own music too, so she began collaborating with anyone she could find. "That part wasn't easy," she recalls, "and it still isn't. When you're a female musician trying to find good people to write and play with, the guys always try to hit on you. It's like they see it as part of the whole process. But I'm tenacious as hell and ultimately I did find talented creative partners who I could trust."

Terri's whole life has been centered in music. "It has been my life's breath. Through the worst of times there has been a song to sustain me." Terri believes a higher power has given her a gift and that she has a message to bring to the world. "Like many before who suffered, I survived it all and became a better, stronger person...Now that I am in total control of my career, I want to be sure that I not only entertain people and bring smiles to their faces, but also serve as an inspiration if I can, a source of strength for those who may need it. And I want to have a damn good time doing it all. After the dues I've paid, I think I deserve a little fun." Rock on Terri!