"[2] Soars has lived in Boca Raton, Florida since 1999, but was born in Anaheim, California, and moved to Cedarville, Arkansas, with his family at three years old.

[3][4] His father, John Martin Soars, who played acoustic guitar and harmonica, enjoyed the music of Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and the Ozark Mountain Daredevils.

Both his parents heard the latter's track, "If You Wanna Get to Heaven", and the young Soars recalled it being played regularly as he grew up.

The change in surroundings was profound, for as Soars entered 11th grade at Forest Hill Community High School, that student population alone was twice as large as that of Cedarville.

[4][5] After enjoying with his father front row centre seats at the concert, Soars got to meet King backstage and had him sign the guitar.

The band was due to undertake a European tour the following year, but Soars left them at that point as he was reluctant to lose his daytime occupation with Motorola.

In 2005, he turned his back on the heavy metal scene, after realising he was almost double the age of his average audience member.

In 2007, when David Shelley decided to enter the International Blues Challenge, Soars played guitar in his backing band.

The memoires of visiting Memphis for the first time stayed with him, and Soars entered a four piece band of his own in the competition the following year.

"[4] Soars also won the Albert King Guitar Award at the same competition, the prize for which was a white Gibson Les Paul.

These included "29 Ways" (Willie Dixon), "Gypsy Woman" (McKinley Morganfield), "Cocaine" (Reverend Gary Davis) and "Gangster of Love" (Johnny "Guitar" Watson).

[5] Since 2011, Soars has also made spasmodic festival appearances as a member of Southern Hospitality, a supergroup that included Victor Wainwright and Damon Fowler.

[5] In January 2019, Soars and Peet traveled to Houma, Louisiana, to enable recording to take place at Tab Benoit's studio.