In the summer of 2001 Stephen was dating, what seemed to be, a nice young lady from East Lansing Michigan. She had convinced him to get his bags packed and move to East Lansing so they could spend more time together. When Stephen got there though she decided it wasn't worked and ended the relationship. Stephen, heartbroken, drove and met up with his best friend Matt K. at his place of employment to tell the story of the breakup. Matt understood the pain and handed Stephen a guitar and said "here play this. It will make you feel better."

With that one moment Stephen found a love for the guitar and a love for creating music. He started off small learning basic chords from Matt and learned how to play Walk Away by Ben Harper. Ben Harper was someone whos music Stephen was able to connect with. He loved the sound of just his fingers plucking the strings on an acoustic guitar. Stephen wrote a couple things here and there but his lack of knowledge of playing the guitar limited him.