As a young child Gary always  knew that he would be involved in the world of music. Fascinated by the musicians he saw as a youth; he picked up a guitar at age nine and has never looked back. Five decades of entertaining crowds, he has performed thousands of gigs in bars, restaurants, corporate & private parties and has been the opening act for Air Supply, Jackson Browne and Ben Harper and more.  With a repertoire of over a thousand songs, he is known as the “Human Jukebox”.

On the music business side of the coin, he has owned a sound company, merchandising company, was a concert promoter and spent 10 years on the road touring with Air Supply, Lita Ford, Jeff Lorber Fusion, McGuffey Lane, Hurricane and Erika Jayne.

In 1989 Gary went out as the production/stage manager for Eazy E & NWA , and after that tour, worked at Ruthless Records for the next six years. He has appeared in three documentaries reflecting those days; Death Row Chronicles, Facing Suge Knight & The Mysterious Death of Eazy E.

As a personal manager some of his clients were grammy winning rap artist Flesh-n Bone (Bone-Thugs-n-Harmony) Sax & Harmonica player Jimmy Z (Rod Stewart, Eurythmics, Tom Petty, Etta James) and music producer Damon Elliott (Pink, Beyonce, Dionne Warwick, Mya, Keyshia Cole).  

“Having spent some 50 years in different facets of the music industry,  I thought I saw everything” says Ballen.  “What Helane has created with Rhythm & Hues is truly groundbreaking”