Peter Grayson, MD, MSc, a tenure track investigator at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Intramural Research Program, Bethesda, Md., sometimes wonders how his life would have turned out if the band he was playing in during college had signed a recording contract with a major record label.
Top image: Dr. Grayson performing with his daughter at a private event.
Middle image: Dr. Grayson performing on the NIH campus.
Bottom right: Dr. Grayson performing with his children at a private event.
Bottom image: The Affordable Rock ’n’ Roll Act after a show. Dr. Grayson is fifth from left, front row.
Dr. Grayson has been playing the piano or guitar and singing and writing songs for as long as he can remember. Since his father was a physician and his mother was an actress, he says there’s always been the duality of art and science in his family.
“My job as a researcher and physician is inherently as much art as it is science,” he says, adding that music and science are all about discipline. “I’m always fiddling around, doing research, writing papers and grants and, at the same time, writing songs and playing music.”
Combining Passions
Dr. Grayson started taking piano lessons when he was 6 years old at the insistence of his mother. By the time he turned 12, he says, “I was sick of playing classical music and wanted to give it up.” But his mother offered a compromise. If he stuck with the lessons, she would buy him a bass guitar, and he could play in a rock and roll band.
“So that’s what I did,” says Dr. Grayson. “When I was about 12, I formed my first rock ’n roll band and have been playing ever since.”
He played in bands with two of his best friends throughout high school and college. The band recorded six albums and toured the country for several weeks, playing at parties, local clubs and bars—even when he wasn’t old enough to drink.
For some time, Dr, Grayson balanced music with medicine. He earned his medical degree in 2004 at the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, and, over the next three years, completed an internship and residency at Boston University Medical Center (now BUSM or Boston University School of Medicine) in the Department of Medicine.
While at Boston University Medical Center, he served as a chief medical resident between 2007 and 2008, and then earned his Master of Science in epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health in 2011.
He returned to the medical center to complete his clinical research training fellowship in 2011 and also his rheumatology fellowship the following year. Then he served as a KL2 and Evans Scholar, bioinformatics, between 2012 and 2013.
In 2013, Dr. Grayson started a translational research program in vasculitis at the NIH.
“Along the way, I progressed through various titles to get to be on the tenure track” at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, Bethesda, he says. “I became an assistant clinical investigator and just got promoted to the tenure track in 2018.”
Catalyst for Creativity
Over the years, Dr. Grayson says his musical talent evolved. As a self-taught bass guitarist and singer, he learned how to play the bass guitar by watching YouTube videos. Meanwhile, he has written hundreds of songs and teaches his three young daughters how to sing and play the guitar in hopes of one day performing with them at conferences or private parties.
Several of his songs are even performed by members of the Affordable Rock ’n’ Roll band.
“They’ve been very kind and indulge me by playing some of my original music,” he says, adding that he has performed with the band for seven years. “We play almost 10 shows a year. Because of everyone’s busy schedule, we intensely practice just before the time of the shows.”
Click here to listen to Dr. Grayson talk more about the importance of music.
He says the band generally includes up to 14 members (including guitarist and NIH Director Francis Collins, MD, PhD) who play a wide variety of instruments, including guitar, violin, horns and mandolins. Every year, the band performs at the Friends of Patients at the NIH, various science conferences and Camp Fantastic, a weeklong camp for children with cancer.
When physicians attending medical conferences learn that a band comprising physicians will be performing, he says many sigh, believing the band will be terrible. However, after the show, some typically approach him and other band members, telling them they were “pretty good,” says Dr. Grayson. “That’s the kind of sweet spot we hope for.”
Every now and then, Dr. Grayson and other band members get together for dinner at each other’s homes and then play for hours for fun.
“Performing has definitely enriched my life,” he says. “I’ve even noticed that when work heats up, I read a lot of literature and try to chase new ideas and discoveries. That’s also the time when I write the most songs. I just feel like it revs up my creativity.”
Carol Patton, a freelance writer based in Las Vegas, writes the Rheum After 5 column for The Rheumatologist.
Affordable Rock ‘n’ Roll Act & Friends
Click here to listen to this song performed by Dr. Grayson and his band.
I’m not sure about it, I’m not so sure
Pass these songs around, well-worn hand-me-downs
Spent our summers home before we learned to roam
When we settled down, we filled our homes with sound.
—Excerpt from a song by Peter Grayson, MD
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Below, watch the Affordable Rock And Roll Act perform Lucinda, an original by Peter Grayson and featuring Peter on vocals, at the ASGCT reception at The Newseum in Washington, D.C., on May 6, 2016.
