Born in Longview Texas in 1957 to Bobby and Jo Ann Willis.
Father played piano and directed the gospel music in our church.
Received a bass for my 13th birthday and started playing in church a few days later.
Played trombone for a year in 6th grade but retired soon after since you couldn't play football and be in the band.
Art teacher in 9th grade offered me $50 for one of my paintings. I said no.
Injured my medial collateral ligament playing football at age 15.
Played on the tennis team from age 15 until graduation.
Got offered a $100 art scholarship to Texas Wesleyan.
Went to live and work in Bastrop, Louisiana with my grandfather (a carpenter) for 6 months before entering college.
My guitar audition for entering Kilgore Junior College consisted of "play a G7 chord".
Summer Job: sorting pipe thread protectors with a pipe thread protector refurbishing company.
At East Texas State University, became a composition major ($100 per semester incentive) with a major performance of piano.
Sucked at classical piano but there wasn't any guitar or bass instruction.
Played a lot outside of school, mostly bass, with the socially outcast "jazzers" there . They smoked a lot of pot but I never did (coward).
Summer Job: on the railroad in Dangerfield, TX.
Studied guitar with the legendary Jack Peterson at Eastfield Community College.
Summer Job: delivering flowers in Dallas.
Followed Jack to North Texas State University.
Spent first year as a guitarist and played in the 9 O'clock (worst) lab band and met Kirk Covington.
Summer Job: was fired after 2 weeks from the 5AM-9AM shift at UPS in Dallas for being late a 3rd time (unreliable Pinto wagon).
Next school year was spent exclusively as a bass player, but again in the 9 O'clock lab band.
Eventually migrated up to the 4 O'clock band. (the first 3 bands were reserved for upright bassists)
My "Jazz Education" degree was going to require another two and a half years of classical upright private lessons.
I sucked at classical upright and didn't see my future in it so I quit school.
Made enough money from a Top 40 Holiday Inn band tour to buy a Fender '65 Jazz and proceeded to make it fretless while in Anchorage Alaska.
Returned to Denton/Dallas area and started playing in local original jazz groups and got married.
Arrived in L.A. with 2 phone numbers of musician friends, both were on the road touring.
In the first 6 months, out of 6 gigs - 2 were paying. Meanwhile, ocasional menial labor, washing windows, unpacking trucks.
Eventually started playing at the Baked Potato with Phil Upchurch.
Started playing with Scott Henderson and formed Tribal Tech.
Auditioned and eventually got the gig with Jean Luc Ponty but 2 weeks later got a call from Wayne Shorter.
Started composing.
Got my first Mac - the Mac Plus.
Started teaching at GIT in Hollywood.
Started touring the US and Europe with Tribal Tech.
Buster the yellow lab was born in Orange County.
Moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Josie the chocolate lab was born in Nebraska.
Wrote my first two books for Hal Leonard, Fingerboard Harmony for Bass and the Gary Willis Collection.
First mountain bike: the Bridgestone MB-3.
Recorded my first solo CD, No Sweat, with Dennis Chambers, Scott Kinsey and Steve Tavaglione.
Traded bass lessons for a Rock Shox Mag 21 and started seriously tinkering with bikes and suspension.
Got hit by a car on my bike and used the insurance money to get a full suspension GT LTS-1.
Started working with Ibanez on the design of the GWB1 signature fretless bass guitar for Ibanez.
Wrote Ultimate Ear Training for Guitar and Bass for Hal Leonard.
Moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Started my first experimentation with web design, HTML and PageSpinner.
Recorded my second solo CD, Bent, with Dennis Chambers, Bob Berg, Steve Tavaglione, Scott Kinsey and Kirk Covington.
Graduated to the Cannondale Jeckyll and started to do websites with Cyberstudio (which eventually became Adobe GoLive).
Ibanez releases the GWB1 signature fretless bass guitar.
Got my first color computer monitor.
Wrote 101 Bass Tips for Hal Leonard.
Tribal Tech releases its final CD: Rocket Science
Started learning Flash and ActionScript coding with the help of Colin Moock's ActionScript for Flash MX.
Got to visit the Mountain bike mecca's of Moab, Utah; Sedona, Arizona; Monarch Pass, Colorado; Taos, New Mexico
Separation and eventual divorce.
Winter of severe depression that eventually is helped with SSRI's, good friends and later . . .
Marriage to the lovely Spaniard - Anna Alsina.
Began part-time surveillance work for private detective.
Ibanez releases the GWB35 - a more affordable fretless bass guitar for the masses.
Started web design business with a diverse client list: The Santa Fe Jazz Festival, various Bed and Breakfasts, an Alpaca Farm, eccentric poets, musicians.
Moved to Barcelona, Spain
Start teaching composition, improvisation, arranging and bass at Escola Superior de Musica de Catalunya.
Flew Kirk Covington to Barcelona to begin work on solo CD project.
Formed the trio and recorded Slaughterhouse 3 with Llibert Fortuny and Kirk Covington.
Eventually phased out the web design business.
Too much tennis on my already injured medial collateral ligament causes a ruptured miniscus.
Miniscus surgery succesful but tennis is doubtful.
Slaughterhouse 3 trio CD is self-released then picked up by Abstractlogix.
3rd solo CD, Actual Fiction is released with Abstractlogix.
Mountain bike accident results in a 3rd degree separation of right shoulder and confirms that my tennis career is indeed over.
Although, mountain biking continues to be fine for my knee and shoulder.