In his early years, since he lived in a rural area and had no brothers or sisters his age, LJ spent a lot of time watching television and developing a creative imagination. He enjoyed emulating various television characters and eventually developed an interest in ventriloquism. Though the usually calm nature of his home environment provided a sense of security, the lack of much ongoing conversation may have contributed to his feeling of being at somewhat of a disadvantage as he encountered the rest of society. His ability to sustain high levels of concentration and objective perspectives often seemed to contrast with the behaviors and attitudes of those who had come from larger families or had had more opportunities to participate in interpersonal communication. His interest in popular music of the '60s motivated him to learn to play a few instruments, begin writing his own songs and getting together with school chums to form combos. He was inspired and influenced by musicians in bands seen at local teen dances, a few of which went on to be recognized nationally. He played his first "gig" on drums at age 14, and by 1970, his group "Freeman Sound" was enjoying local popularity. Graduating from high school in the spring of '70, LJ started taking college courses that fall, often finding himself fatigued from studying and attending classes while trying to keep up with the music-related "night-life". What was considered by some to be aspects of mismanagement of the group and the confusions of the times in general were factors that contributed to the breakdown of ongoing communications between the bandmembers, who eventually wound up going their separate ways.

LJ had concentrated on social-science classes during most of his first year at college, but he would attempt to "get all his eggs into one basket" by redirecting his efforts into music by establishing guitar and percussion as his academic "major" and "minor". As he worked his way through the first round of music-related classes, he realized that he didn't really want to be a music teacher, and that the mental discipline of learning to relate to music as little black dots on paper conflicted with his desire to be about writing and performing music in a less complicated and restrictive manner. After two years of school, LJ quit to try and revive his own musical career. There was a point when LJ would have been pleased to have married his teenage sweetheart, established a secure domestic situation and been about his writing and performing. When this didn't happen, the stage was set for the series of personal misfortunes he experienced in the following years.

LJ spent his 20s phasing through a series of somewhat haphazard attempts to promote his own music, performing with various local groups and as a soloist. He had a couple of opportunities to journey to the west coast and take some samples of his original music to major record companies. Their response was generally that they would like to "hear more", but as LJ never had the means to record much in the way of studio quality material, and since he didn't achieve his goal of being signed by a major company as the result of his efforts, he became disenchanted with the whole idea and gave up on pressing in that direction. At one point, responding to a local newspaper ad, he wound up embarking on an ill-fated venture to Chicago to join a band that was supposed to be almost ready to play that never materialized. The ever-changing band situations resulted in his systematically losing touch with a number of good friends along the way. Any hopes of establishing a lasting, romantic relationship suffered as well. Toward the end of the 70s, LJ was battling discouragement and lacked a clear sense of direction for his life. By the mid '80s, he was married, a father, very involved with a local church and busy redirecting his talents into a music-based ministry. Sadly, ongoing marital contentions resulted in his eventually abandoning his efforts to establish a full time ministry, a return to college (making the "President's List" with back to back "straight A" full time semesters), and finally, his quitting school again to return to performing music for the general public. The marriage was eventually dissolved.

With no college degree and little work experience besides as a musician, LJ had little hope of finding gainful conventional employment that he could cope with. In the mid '90s, discouraged by his overall situation after a couple of ill-fated dishwashing jobs and finding it difficult to find work in Ohio, he wound up relocating to Vermont to take advantage of a job opportunity through relatives. He sought to be closer to his elderly parents and give his daughter a chance for a new life there. He worked for a season at a ski resort and then spent about 5 years working nights in a warehouse, too fatigued to do much else other than visit his parents when he could and work on his web site while unwinding in the wee hours of the morning. He did manage to put together a little cassette tape format home studio with which he hoped to record original music that might provide a miracle in the whole situation. Though some things didn't turn out as planned, he learned a lot from the whole experience and some important things were accomplished. Financially secure and basically free from interference, LJ had a chance to more objectively consider the factors that had influenced the outcome of his life up to that point. He also used the internet to do some research on mental, spiritual and social phenomena that shed some light on some very odd things that had happened to him that had mysterious aspects to them.

LJ's mother and father both passed away while he was in Vermont. Since his daughter seemed unable to break free of her disadvantaged situation in Ohio, in late 2003 he decided he would return to the state and try to help her get matters sorted out. After 3 months of bad experiences while working at a telecommunication center, LJ decided that the best thing to do was to attempt a return to performing music and to try to make the best of the skills he had spent a lifetime developing. He spent most of 2004 working with a Europe-based record company that wanted to release an album based on his Freeman Sound group of 1970. The resulting album was distributed internationally, and with the interest in music from that era being what it is, LJ hoped it might prove to be a break-through for his original music. While waiting to see how the album situation would develop, LJ spent most of 2005 trying to re-establish his solo "oldies and blues" show. LJ found that much had changed over the years, and with the local economy continuing to take downturns, it was difficult to find enough work to survive in the immediate vicinity of where he lived. The condition of his vehicle made considering expanding his work search to surrounding areas impractical. At the end of '05, he took advantage of a lead on a job at a plastic products factory, where he again began to work long night shifts. He hoped that he would have at least some time during his schedual to work on recording his music, taking advantage of a computer studio setup he had acquired which would enable him to graduate from producing cassette tapes of his music to making digital quality recordings and putting them on CDs. Unfortunately, the stressful, physically demanding job took its toll on his mind and body to the point where he couldn't manage to do much of anything at all but try to cope with the mental and physical trauma that resulted from the whole situation. In October of '07, after enduring it all as long as possible and saving enough money to tide him over for a couple of months, LJ quit the factory job. Considering a degenerative back condition, the nightmarish demands of most labor jobs, his seemingly being considered as unqualified or otherwise undesired for any other type of job in the area that he could actually support himself with, he realized the only option was to go back to trying to perform live and attempting to make something of his original music. He had acquired another second hand vehicle which he hoped would enable him to cover more ground in his efforts to promote his solo act again. He managed to make it through the winter of '07-'08, working on improving the solo act, distributing new promotional material and finally producing his first digitalized CD album of previously recorded original recordings, "Lost Songs Volume One". In the summer of '08, having gotten little response to his efforts to promote his one man show and even further problems developing with the economy in general, he resorted to a part time senior work program and took a maintenance job at a local retirement center. Early in '09, LJ wound up leaving the senior work program due to their referring him to another job. He would find time during the spring to record another batch of original music which became "Lost Songs Volume Two", and wound up spending the summer sitting inside Home Depot stores representing heating and cooling products. The economic situation continued its downslide, and he found himself unable to attempt much in the way of performing on the weekends, anyway, due to his work schedual. During the fall of '09, the in-store heating and cooling rep program was discontinued and LJ was once again without an income. Fortunately, LJ was able to cover his bills for a while as he made an attempt to put together a combo with a couple of old pals. Unfortunately, due to the situational circumstances of the prospective bandmembers and some other unforeseen impedences to progress, the project finally ground to a halt and fell by the wayside. In the spring of 2010, LJ returned to the part time maintanence job. Mostly mowing lawns for 3 or so hours a day, the demands of a labor job slowed down further attempts at re-establishing himself as a full time musician or making headway with recording more of his original music. He continued to invent ways to make a few clicks on the "wheel of progress", each day, though, and managed to continue to at least promote his status as a mostly frustrated but talented artist. Late in 2010, after having mostly sacrificed a long, hot summer to mowing lawns and having his van stolen from his job site's parking lot, the opportunity to move into a little house in the vicinity of the neighborhood he had grown up in co-incided with the lease for his apartment being up for renewal. He succeeded in making the move, and managed to have his subsidized program work site transferred to another location. The resulting lightened work load and various benefits of being in an improved situation have enabled him to make more headway in the direction of accomplishing home studio work and considering how he might put together a new campaign to promote his abilities to perform as a musician.

Progressing into 2011, LJ continues to promote home-produced CDs and the history of his attempts at being a successful songwriting musician.