As a child, Joe was a ventriloquist. He performed throughout the greater St. Louis area with his dummy. His family moved to Covina, California when he was twelve. He traded out his dummy for a guitar and was soon performing all over Southern California. His trio, The New California Trio opened for The Smother's Brothers at The Icehouse in Pasadena and performed on Saturday afternoons in The Hollywood Bowl.
Joe's Band, Solid Gold traveled the country and throughout Canada. They performed on the rising stage at Disneyland, the band opened for Waylon & Willie at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas and recorded for K-TEL Records - Sound-Alikes '50s on 8-track tapes. They reached The Billboard Top 30 with "My Share of The Sidewalk" written by Michael Nesmith of The Monkeys.
After touring with Solid Gold Joe built his "American Recording Studio" in Denver. Joe engineered for popular bands of the day such as Firefall, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and Air Supply when they would have dates in town. Joe caught the voice acting bug from Robert Redford after recording the actor's narration of the mountain climbing documentary "Free Climb".