North Florida Music Hall of Fame

Kurzweg, a Tallahassee native, was signed as a singer to Atlantic Records when his then-girlfriend was transferred to Jacksonville in 1988. She and Kurzweg lived in the San Marco area for about a year. Instead of touring to promote his Atlantic album, however, he abandoned the project to join bar-band Synergy (which also featured future attorney Eric Block and future Lynyrd Skynyrd members Tim Lindsay and Randall Hall along with Rossington Collins drummer Derek Hess. After being dropped by both Atlantic and his Jacksonville girlfriend, he returned to Tallahassee to put together a demo studio in his house, where he began engineering and producing recordings for area acts like House of Dreams, The Sight-Seers and newcomers Creed. Creed immediately scored a major deal, eventually selling a whopping 24 million records (the group broke up in June of 2004). Kurzweg was a virtual fifth member of Creed, overseeing its arrangements, singing backgrounds and playing keyboards on its recordings. He later produced Puddle of Mudd’s debut for Fred Durst’s Flawless label—sales of which hit three million. Also see Synergy; Creed; Sight Seers; House of Dreams.