Eddie Cockerel has never made it big.

Not in the way he imagined when he was a kid, fingering his first guitar and slaving to perfect Ted Nugent songs. Nowhere near what he yearned for playing bars as a young man, envisioning himself in front of roaring, worshipping fans.

No, the 46-year-old's jam sessions at his drummer's place are a far cry from that.

It's not too late, he says.

But there is a deadline.

"I can absolutely out rock everybody. I'm not kidding. But how much longer can I do that?" the musician and songwriter said. "My whole thing is I've got until I'm 50 to become a God. By 50 if I'm not on stage and they don't know who I am, they're not going to want to know. Frankly I'm ready to lose my mind, I want to make it so bad."

The Athol musician sees it as a last chance, his rock band's audition for "America's Got Talent" this month.

He can picture it already, the scrupulous judges and leery television audience versus his three-man band, Revolutions Per Minute. Just him, his son Marcus and a Priest River drummer named Tommy Rentfro, whose talent Eddie is convinced is stuff of legends.

All the judges need is to hear the lyrics, Eddie swears. All they need is to see the way Marcus moves across the stage, his body convulsing to the state his head looks ready to fly off.

"All I want is to get through this audition for those judges, Sharon in particular. She's Ozzie's wife, she's Don Arden's daughter, you can take her musical experience back to the '70s," Eddie said.

Heaven to him, Eddie said, would be Sharon saying they belong at the next Ozzfest.

"I'll massage her feet, I'll send her flowers and candy. I'll massage Ozzie's feet, I don't care," Eddie said. "We're going to stand out because of who we are, and where we're from."

Playing is all Eddie has ever done.

Well, that's not altogether true. Struggling musician has always been his main occupation, but his real income usually had to come from someplace else, especially after he married and produced three kids to feed.

Roving from state to state to be near family, Eddie raised his brood by roofing, laying cement, driving taxis.

In between, he played gigs wherever he could, from bars to street corners.

"Every time we'd move, I'd start a new band," he said, adding that laboring for income took its toll. "I wouldn't suggest it. The lifestyle is for nobody."

Eddie, originally from Tucson, Ariz., has never studied music. No teacher, no lessons, no music store manual. After 34 years playing guitar, he still can't read music.

His musicianship is the kind that's in the blood, honed by ear. His mother, Alberta Mcafee, was a vocalist for a band. His grandfather, Larry Cockerel, was the leader of Larry and the Sunset Riders, which toured across the country.

It was his grandpa who gave Eddie his first guitar in 1977.

"I remember my grandpa telling me, 'Eddie, all you have to do is put your fingers up and down the neck, find the tune, and just mimic what you're hearing,'" Eddie said.

The boy followed his advice faithfully.

"I remember being 12 and my folks got me a Ted Nugent album, 'Cat Scratch Fever,' and I sat there and I fingered it to impress the little girl across the street," he said. "And that was motivation enough, because she did talk to me."

Now he can throw his challenge at anyone.

Give him a song, any style, any genre, and in a few days he can play it flawlessly.

Had Eddie gone it alone in life, untethered, he admits, he might have made it to Hollywood.

He at least would have tried it, he said, and with his drive, he wouldn't have quit until folks were lining up for hours to hear him play.

Can't do that and be a good father though, said Eddie, now divorced. And with his kids now raised - Marcus is 25, Jennifer and Tialor 23 - he has no ounce of regret about the choice he made.

"My daughter has a family, she's doing well. My youngest son is a military man and doing well, and my oldest is in my band with me now as an equal," he said. "I've already succeeded. Maybe that's why things are happening now."

The TV show idea came from his cousin Marcus Roach in French Lick, Ind., who knew his relative just needed a shot.

"From the image that you see of him, you think, 'Well, this is going to be a waste of my time,' but when he starts playing and singing, I just sit with my mouth open," Roach said. "I've been telling him forever, that's what he was meant to do."

A cable TV fan, Marcus urged Eddie to try out for the show. But the musician laughed off the idea.

So his cousin filled out the application for him. Early in January he called Eddie to tell him the band was scheduled to play at the "America's Got Talent" auditions on Feb. 19 and 20 in Tacoma, Wash.

Eddie is still recovering from the shock, he said.

"Marcus just called me one day and started yukking it up, saying, 'Your worries are going to be over soon,'" he said. "He's out of control, I'm telling you."

The group will blow the judges away, Roach said.

"Not to be bragging, but after so many years of watching 'America's Got Talent' and 'American Idol,' I've picked the winner each year," Roach said. "And they (Eddie's band) have got talent running out their ears."

Revolutions Per Minute is groomed for success, Eddie said.

He is musically seasoned after decades of performance exposure. Marcus, who grew up watching his dad's gigs, picked up the bass young, and by 15 was performing with Eddie at bars in the Silver Valley.

"What a great way for a kid to cut his teeth," Eddie said. "You can't hear or see anybody better than Marcus."

And the drummer? A Godsend Eddie and Marcus discovered when they played with him on a whim in a Newport dive one New Year's Eve. After three hours of wailing, Eddie said, the three were exhausted, slick with sweat, and convinced their styles fused perfectly.

"I was always looking for a drummer like the guy from Rush, who could absolutely wail. And then we found him," Eddie said. "I feel like we've got one of the best bands in the country."

Eddie just wants his music heard, he said.

His lyrics - like those in "Never Going Back" the song about Idaho he wants to play for Sharon - have something to teach people.

"There are things to be said, things to be sang about. Nature, love, being alive," he said. "I just don't think new music is any good. There's nobody with talent anymore. That's where we're trying to come in."

Revolutions Per Minute

• For more information on Eddie Cockerel and his band, call: (810) 734-0013