Jake McGehee strums his Fender Telecaster, picking out the melody of a tune he wrote years ago in what seems like a different lifetime.

McGehee, 28, has been singing and playing guitar and drums for practically his whole life. He's played on stages all across Texas and Oklahoma with his band, The Jake Adams Band.

McGehee strums with a pick mounted to a metal joint, attached to a gel sleeve he wears over what remains of his right arm.

He lost the lower half of his right arm in a workplace accident on May 24, 2012, a date he'll never forget. The date is emblazoned in a tattoo on the inside of his left wrist, the date wrapped around a wooden cross with a Phoenix hovering above.