[1] He lived in what was then mostly rural Overland Park until 1970, when his school teacher father and bank teller mother moved him and his sister to Lawrence, Kansas.
He played drums and sang early rock 'n roll songs by the likes of Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, and Carl Perkins.
[2] In his later teens, Mead switched from drums to guitar, and over the next decade, formed several rock 'n' roll bands with various musician friends around Lawrence, Kansas.
[1] Mead moved to Nashville in 1993, and soon landed a job playing as a solo singer/songwriter in the front window of Tootsie's Orchid Lounge, a club in a dilapidated a strip known as Lower Broadway.
They played Wednesday - Saturday nights at Robert's, and were joined by drummer Shaw Wilson later that year, along with bassist Bones Becker and Mark Ude (known as Tex Austin) on saxophone.
[5] In March 1995, Becker and Ute were replaced by "Smilin'" Jay McDowell (upright bass) and Don Herron (steel guitar, fiddle, and mandolin), solidifying the lineup.
[6][7] During Fan Fair (now known as CMA Music Fest) 1995, Billboard magazine editor Timothy White saw the band play, and vowed to "put them on the cover" of the publication, which, in fact, he did.
[17] In 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mead wrote and recorded "I Ain't Been Nowhere", a parody based upon the Hank Snow song "I've Been Everywhere" made famous by Johnny Cash.
[18] In 2002 and 2003, Mead teamed up with longtime Nashville studio musician Dave Roe to produce tribute records to Johnny Cash (Dressed in Black: A Tribute to Johnny Cash) and Waylon Jennings (Lonesome, On'ry and Mean) for the Dualtone record label,[1] featuring artists such as Guy Clark, Raul Malo, Carlene Carter, Norah Jones, John Doe and many others.