Greg Vaughan was born and raised in San Diego, California. He started performing at age 5 in a hand balancing act with is father Glen Vaughan, a gymnastics coach. By the age of 8 he had already performed in front of thousands of people at arenas in California and Mexico. At the age of 9 he started performing as an actor, singer, and dancer with various theatre groups in California. This led to the opportunity to share the stage with movie great John Carradine (Grapes Of Wrath). He started doing vocal session work on commercials and jingles at the age of 10. At age 11 he starred in a television commercial for Yamaha keyboards. Having started piano lessons at age 9 he picked up the guitar at age 12. At age 14 he had a life changing experience watching Stevie Ray Vaughan perform at the Del Mar Fair. At age 16 - feeling he needed to choose between his 3 great passions of acting, music, and martial arts - he decided to focus on music. After high school he graduated from the vocal program at the Musician’s Institute in Hollywood, CA. He then went on to play in everything from alternative rock, latin jazz, jam bands, country and reggae to heavy metal bands.

Having started teaching guitar at age 16, Greg officially opened his guitar school The Temple Of The Sacred String in 2003. He has since taught over 100 students, many of whom work as professional musicians. His unique teaching approach draws on his interest in martial arts and eastern philosophy. In 2005 Greg won first place in Guitar Center’s Guitarmageddon Competition for San Diego County. In May 2006 he achieved his teenage dream of studying and performing with legendary Scorpions guitarist Uli Jon Roth at his Sky Academy in Los Angeles. He went on to study and perform with him again in 2007 and 2008. In 2006 Greg released his solo album “Way Of the Sacred String.” It features 12 original hard rock and pop songs. This was followed in 2008 by his neo-classical rock guitar album “Dragon Whips His Tail.” Greg performed all the instruments. The songs focus on different technical and compositional concepts and are intended to be study pieces for his students. Mastery of these songs is considered the final level of his “Way Of The Sacred String” teaching system.

In January of 2006 Greg played his first show with his Gypsy Rock band Danyavaad and the Shimmy Sisters. The Middle Eastern and Indian flavored group features Greg on vocals/baby sitar/saz/cumbus/sueng, Gabriel Penix on percussion/vocals/guitar and Sandi Bagri (DJ Sandbag) on bass. They are joined by the bellydance troupe the Shimmy Sisters featuring Adelaide and Leilainia. The group has performed at clubs, restaurants, private parties, corporate events, and festivals in California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Florida, and Mexico. In December of 2008 they released their 2 Disc CD/DVD package “March Of The Gypsies.” In June of 2010 they were featured on America’s Got Talent on NBC. On October 31st, 2011 they  appeared on The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills on BRAVO.  The episode also featured 4 original Danyavaad songs. They are currently working on their second album “Nine Levels Of Bliss.” They debuted their new mystical stage play “Nine Levels To Bliss” in El Paso, Texas in June 2011 and plan on staging the production in California.

In January, 2011 Greg made his debut as “Mikey Stripey” in the R.E.M. Tribute Band MURMUR. Being that Michael Stipe has been a hero of Greg’s since age 13, he jumped at the chance to impersonate him when contacted by Musiczirconia – The Largest Tribute Band Agency in the US. Giving him the opportunity to roam the stage as a frontman, guitar duties in the band are handled by Greg’s student Tyler Marderosian.

Having written over 400 songs, Greg is still working on several different styles of music and soundtrack projects. He continues working on his Sacred String instructional guitar book and preparing Sacred String music and philosophy workshops. He has published 2 “Tales Of the Wizard” articles in the bellydance magazine Zaghareet and wants to write for other publications. He also is looking to perform as an actor again.

For more information on Greg’s life, projects, and philosophy CLICK HERE