In 1976, at the age of seven, his older brother Zane, who was thirteen, brought home a Kiss record. Forrest instantly became their biggest fan, and idolized Paul, Gene, Ace, and Peter. They were the coolest thing to hit the planet, he thought, and along with his brothers collected all of their albums and memorabilia. In 1977, he attended his first rock concert at the age of only eight years, in the old Salt Palace in Salt Lake City along with his brothers. The band; Kiss, of course! "I thought it was the coolest thing ever!" And after that, we begged our mother to let us get tickets to almost every cool show that came to town! I was lucky enough to see Foghat, Cheap Trick, Ted Nugent, UFO, REO Speedwagon, and Bob Welch among others. We; my brothers and I, even had third row seats to Van Halen, on their first tour in the USU Spectrum in Logan, Ut! "I was one lucky kid!"

His first guitar was an old strat style Westone that he took over from
his brother Zane when he got a new Ibanez. He strummed it once in awhile, and at the age of ten years old, started taking guitar lessons along with a friend, from his first guitar teacher Kurt Farmer. "Kurt taught me the basics. How to tune a guitar, and strumming patterns and chords. We learned out of a simple
book written by Michael Christiansen. Little did I know at the time that years later, I would be studying the guitar at Utah State University with Michael
Christiansen!" When junior high school came along, Forrest wanted to play in the school band. There wasn't really a need for a guitar in the school band, so he chose to play the alto saxophone instead. He played the saxophone for four
years, through his Freshman year of high school.

Because of his love for hard rock music, the guitar was still the
coolest thing ever, and he loved watching his brother Zane jam out with his friends. So, in 1985, he bought his second guitar. It was a red Peavey Mantis and it was hot looking. He then traded in his saxophone to the Music Source for
a new amp. A Peavey bandit 65. "It had a saturation nob, and reverb, and at the time sounded killer!"

He started taking guitar lessons again from the Music Source in Logan, UT. "At the time, I was learning alot by ear, listening to all of the cool 80's hair bands, memorizing the chords in the songs by ear, and doing my best to pick out the solos. It was fun playing, and all of my friends thought I was cool!"

" In the winter of 1985, I met Brett Naylor at a party at this girls
house that we both knew. He had heard that I played guitar, and he did too, so we started hanging out and jamming together." Even though they went to different high schools, they became good friends, and decided to try and get a
band going. They found a high school kid from Malad, Brett Horsley, who was a drummer; and a kid from Grace who played bass guitar, Tim Maughan. The four got
together and jammed whenever they could, and soon formed a band they called LiveWire. "It was so damn much fun! We wrote some cool songs together, and played at each of our high schools! And the girls loved us! Girls that before
would not even give you the time of day, were talking to me all the time now! It was awesome!"
Because they all weren't the same year in school, LiveWire soon
ended. Forrest and Brett Naylor continued to play music together though, forming garage bands, and playing whever they could. "We were the ultimate "wanna be rockstars", and it was awesome!"

In the fall of 1987, through the fall of 1988, Forrest attended Utah
State University as a music major, studying guitar with Michael Christiansen. To pursue other obligations, he took a two year break from school, and started
again in the spring of 1991, studying again with Mike, but because of other obligations and interests, never got the degree he wanted. "I pretty much owe most of my "chops" to Mike, learning modes, scales, arppegios, and a little bit of theory, which I regret not paying enough attention to at the time.

My biggest influences are the hard rockers from the 80's scene. Dokken, Ratt, Tesla, Motley Crue, Poison, etc. Just to name a few, and of course Kiss. My favorite band , next to 4Th Ryte of course, is Queensryche."

Besides playing guitar, Forrests other interests include; spending
time with his wife Michele, and their four children. He loves anything
outdoors; hunting, fishing, hiking, and biking just to name a few. He is also a Wildlife Artist, running a successful Taxidermy business in Franklin, ID, Mountain Peaks Wildlife Artistry. www.mountainpeakswildlifearts.com