Alex Grant knows that being fired was one of the most positive things that ever happened to him. Raised in a strict, orderly and loving family to be “something sensible, please”, he followed this direction for forty years, when he was abruptly let go from his job as general manager of a manufacturing firm in Phoenix, Arizona. Although approached by other companies in related fields, Alex decided at that point to really look at his life. “I had always loved writing and performing music, and had a deep desire to do so professionally”, he says thoughtfully. “I finally decided that if I didn’t take this opportunity to pursue what I most love to do, I’d probably kick myself when I was eighty!” Grant’s odyssey actually began much earlier. Growing up in a rigid, academically-oriented environment, he excelled in school, and started at the University of Missouri-Columbia on both a full academic scholarship and a Navy ROTC scholarship. “My dream back then was to fly jets” Alex reminisces. But then, midway through his sophomore year, he started writing music-“it was like a floodgate had opened”. So life-altering was the deluge that Grant very quickly left behind the scholarships and the career plans, left school and took a job as a dishwasher, to the astonishment of both parents and friends. For the next twenty years, Alex performed in several different bands while working a wide variety of jobs, all involving hard physical labor which he discovered he loved. He unloaded fishing boats in Alaska, drove forklifts and delivery trucks, worked in a state mental institution and any number of warehouses, eventually arriving at the level of general manager, a position he held for five years before the ax fell in 1994. With much-appreciated moral support from his wife Susie, Grant took the leap and began playing professionally in the fall of that year. Since that time, Grant's CD's have sold more than 50,000 copies, and his signature style of neo-classical piano is clearly evident in his emotionally evocative recordings, which are currently receiving national airplay on Sirius Radio Channel 73, DMX Radio, NPR’s “Morning Edition” program and a nationally syndicated radio program called “Quiet Music”. Alex has played many interesting events including a reception for President Clinton at the Columbine groundbreaking ceremony as well as performing the National Anthem at the June 20th, 2007, Yankees/Rockies baseball game. He was also one of a select group of pianists at the Bosendorfer Piano World Tour at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House in Denver, and was featured on Frontier Airlines’ Wild Blue Yonder television network and in their in-flight magazine. Alex and his wife live in Denver, Colorado. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.