One of the few musicians he was allowed to listen to growing up, Ross Childress cites Elvis as an early inspiration on becoming a guitar player. And at age 9 his parents bought him his first acoustic guitar for Christmas. Not too long after that he took guitar lessons, but quit when his teacher told him that he had to learn to sing.

        Enrolled in a Christian school from elementary to junior high, Ross wasn't exposed to rock music until he was well into his teens. Around 1983 Ross and some friends latched onto a new type of music called "rap." No one knew what rap was at the time, so his parents and school didn't object. In a runabout way, listening to groups like Run D.M.C. introduced Ross to Prince, which introduced him to others things and he eventually got into rock. After that, Ross was spending so much money on music that his father began to worry about him.

        Pulling shifts at the local Revco, and playing in various bands, most notably Mirazh and a cover band called Groove Box, Ross, in 1992 opened for Marching Two-Step, an early version of Collective Soul, and less than a week later he joined the band.

        With the sudden success of Hints, Allegations & Things Left Unsaid, Collective Soul had the opportunity to open for Aerosmith and Van Halen. One experience in particular - dress rehearsals for the 1995 Van Halen tour - really stood out. "The first day we went down and did some mock shows. We went down there and we set up the first time to play - and this is no joke - we looked out there, and the only people we were playing in front of were Eddie, Alex and Michael. They're standing there. That's the only three people we're playing in front of." In fact, Eddie gave Ross one of his signature model guitars and a 5150 amp that Ross still uses.

        While he still has that guitar from Eddie, Ross almost exclusively uses Paul Reed Smith guitars. His conventional and relatively simple rig consisting of a number of Paul Reed Smith McCarty and Custom models driving a pair of Fender '65 Twin Reverb reissues via an ancient Ibanez PUE-5 Tube floor-mounted multi-effect, a Dunlop Crybaby Q-535 Wah pedal, and an Ernie Ball volume pedal combined with an E-Bow, provides Childress with one of the most distinctive styles heard in rock today. But his use of the E-Bow came out of necessity. "When we toured for Disciplined Breakdown, we wouldn't play "World I Know" live because the string part was so important to the tune. I decided to try to use the E-Bow to substitute for the strings. Now I've developed enough technique with it to use it in the studio as well as live."

        While Ross is the lead guitarist for Collective Soul, he isn't limited to just that position. "Why," a b-side was the first song Ross and Ed co-wrote together. They've also collaborated on "Simple," and "The World I Know." But most recently, Ross has made his singing/songwriting debut on Dosage with "Dandy Life." So what do his bandmates think of him? Just ask Ed: "He is the most underrated lead guitarist in rock, point-blank. When Ross joined the band, there was no need for me to even attempt a lead the rest of my life. To me, he is kinda where [The Cars guitarist] Elliot Easton left off. He takes the song, he melts within the song, and yet he can play his ass off."