Eric “Junior” Cyrus started collecting at an early age, as his first summer job at age 11 was in Times Store’s record department where he spent every idle moment in their listening booths. His parents also exposed him to a varity of music, Jerry Vale, Andy Williams, Nat King Cole from his mother and Otis Redding, Percy Sledge and King Curtis from his father.
His serious collecting began in New York in 1979. His first introduction to “real” collecting was through his childhood friend Trevor Bop, who introduced him to less mainstream artists. Bop then reintroduced him to Raphael who he knew growing up, and introduced him to Spencer and Buzz and those guys opened up a whole new world of collecting to him. Junior spent many wonderful days roaming New York and the surrounding states with those guys and others like Shadows, Paul, Billy and Winston searching, learning and collecting and owes a great deal to them.
Junior’s first love is Soul, but he collects Rocksteady, Ska, Jazz and Blues as well. He is one of the hosts of the Vintage Vinyl Live Video Show, which airs each Sunday from 1 – 5 pm EST.
Favorite Artist: Walter Jackson
Favorite Genre: Soul
