Former child guitar prodigy Nathan Cavaleri (second from right) has returned to the music scene with a new band, Nat Col and the Kings.
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By the age of 13, guitar prodigy Nathan Cavaleri had just about done it all.
He'd jammed with Mark Knopfler, toured with B.B. King and hung out backstage with Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, REM and Elton John.
He'd appeared on CNN, Conan O'Brien, Entertainment Tonight and Good Morning America.
He'd played in stadiums in front of thousands and in the White House in front of President Bill Clinton.
That performance at the White House, however, was close to the last time he performed for anyone for many years.
Cavaleri took his parents' advice to drop out of the limelight to give himself a chance to grow up, to concentrate on high school, and to decide what he really wanted to do.
Now at age 30, he's back in the music scene with a new band, Nat Col and the Kings.
"It was completely essential to have that break," Cavaleri says.
"There are a lot of normal growing pains and changes that you go through at that age that you don't want to be doing in front of the camera.
"I took some time off to work out what I wanted to do. I experimented with a few things - worked as a producer and then back to writing.
"After much soul searching, I worked out the reasons I wanted to play music.
"It wasn't about fame and it wasn't about making money. It was simply to write songs and to communicate with people and do it with mates that I enjoy being with."
The band was formed when Cavaleri called up a few friends, including former Screaming Jets drummer Col Hatchman, for a jam and a few beers.
"It has all snowballed from there, from little under-the-radar shows that we'd do just for fun," Cavaleri says.
"The response was bigger and more positive than we'd expected and that was where Nat Col and the Kings began."
Completing the line-up are bass player Kenny Jewell and backup singer Toni Bird.
"Originally we intended Nat Col and the Kings to be a bit of a revolving door of musicians around Col and I, but after only a couple of gigs with Kenny, he kind of got jammed in the revolving door - we didn't want to let him go," Cavaleri says.
The band's sound draws on Cavaleri's blues roots and Hatchman's energetic brand of rock'n'roll.
"The first tour I ever did was with Jimmy Barnes and Diesel," Cavaleri says. "That made a massive impression on me when it came to how to execute music on stage - just being filled with energy and really fiery and sweating and giving it all.
"That's the type of musician I was born to be surrounded by and Col is definitely one of those type of blokes.
"The band are essentially rock but influenced by blues and country blues, rock bands like Them Crooked Vultures and earthy type bands like The White Stripes and The Black Keys.
"I have gone back to my blues roots, but it's bigger, more fiery, more rocking," Cavaleri says.
And for those who remember the virtuoso guitar solos that he used to reel off as a teenager, there's a few of those as well.
BENJAMIN LONG