Born near the banks of the Virginia's New River, Tip spent his early years in the hills and hollows around Radford, Virginia. "According to my brothers",says Tip, the youngest of three: "I lived with the hounds for the first few years of my life and thought I was a dog. That could  be an exaggeration, but I surely spent a lot of time running around in the woods".

Tip eventually moved to Central Ohio with his family and traded the woods  for more urban activities, including  the guitar.  His first instrument was a hand-me-down from his brother Jeff:  "I used to hear my brother playing on the front porch, usually with  one or two of the neighborhood girls hanging around. So when he got a  better guitar, I made sure he gave me his old one - I could recognize a good thing when I saw it". After playing for a few years, Tip  started performing on guitar in bands around the OSU campus.