DALTON GARDENS — You can take the rocker out of the music, but you can never take the music out of the rocker.

Even after a spine-crushing bike wreck in 1998 that left him paralyzed with the use of only one muscle in each hand, Dave Sims reprogrammed his brain, body and mind to once again do what he loves.

“I hadn’t even dreamed of playing guitar again,” said Sims, colored beams from overhead shining onto his light, shaggy hair. "I just assumed music was out of the question.”

But it wasn't out of the question. He learned that with a little help from his friends.

“Our drummer shows up and sticks this on my thumb and sticks this on my right thumb,” Sims said, holding up a glass guitar slide and a thumbpick. "He throws a guitar in my lap and he says, ‘Play. And don’t give me any crap about the ‘I can’t play’ stuff, because you just came and picked us up at the airport.'"

"And these guys, they’re like, ‘You’re not just going to play, you’re going to be lead guitar player,'" Sims said.

Although he was in disbelief, his friends insisted.

"They're like, ‘We’re not going to get somebody else,’” he said.

“I remember that moment because it was a real emotional moment,” keyboardist Doug Buell said during a phone conversation Friday.

Sims, 59, started playing guitar at age 14. At 17, his girlfriend at the time knew a guy at a gas station who was looking for a guitar player for his band, so Sims auditioned.

"The first time Dave played for us, he played Ted Nugent's 'Strangle-hold' with this crazy long guitar solo," Buell said. "We knew right then he was fully capable of getting up to speed in this band. From that time, the bookings exploded."

The Lynnwood/Seattle rock band Archer — lead singer/guitarist Martin Smith, lead guitarist Sims, keyboardist Buell, drummer Mark Hedstrom and bassist Brian Elslip — formed in 1979 and performed at schools, fairs, clubs, proms and more for six years. With their classic-alternative-guitar-infused rock sound and four-part harmonies, the guys had dreams of rock stardom.

"I always laugh about the schools," Buell said with a chuckle. "I'm around school and government people all the time now, and you could never do today what we did back then on a daily basis."

Life happened and took the bandmates in different directions. Although they remained in touch, they didn't see each other for several years.

It was during this time that Sims was injured.

“I wish I had been going 100 mph on a bicycle and flown off in a competition, but unfortunately I was going about three miles an hour on ground as flat as this floor at Sun Lakes state park on a camping trip," Sims said. "I went over the handle bars. I was coming up on a curve and my kids were with me and I had to move over and slow down. My front brake locked. I hit my head straight into the ground.

"I just landed in a heap and instantly couldn’t feel anything,” he said. "I was like, 'Uh oh, this is not good.’ It was almost like I hit my funny bone because I was all tingly and couldn’t feel anything. And it was scary, that was a scary time."

This changed everything for Sims, who grew up in North Idaho but spent 20 years in Seattle and came back in the mid-1990s.

After the initial stage of disbelief and denial, Sims realized he didn't want to spend his life thinking about "what if." His philosophy, like a buoy, kept him focusing on what he could do — and not what he couldn't.

When he argued with a therapist about how she tied his shoes, and she told him to "learn to tie your own shoes, get Velcro or get over it," a fire ignited in him.

"That made me so mad that, for months, I sat on my bed trying to figure it out until I developed a way to tie my shoes with my fingers that don’t work. And I wanted them tied tight, and I wanted that knot cinched tight, and I wanted those loops to be even,” he said. "Then I went back and I said, ‘I taught myself. I don’t need you anymore,’ and she’s like, ‘B.S. Dave, I’ve been doing this for 20 years and I’ve never seen a quadriplegic tie his shoes before.’ And I threw my foot up on the mat and I tied it. I cinched it up tight and tied it. She looked at me and goes, ‘Twenty years, I’ve never seen that. Good for you.’"

Tying shoes is one thing. But a quadriplegic playing guitar?

"When you say it out loud, it sounds really stupid — a quadriplegic with no finger function playing guitar, it just sounds really dumb," Sims said.

And yet, he's doing it.

More than two decades after their last show, Archer members reunited in Sims' home and played together again. Sims was happy to sit on the sidelines, but his bandmates had other plans.

"About 2011, 2012, they decided they wanted to play again," Sims said. "I was like, 'Yay, I’m right there, I’ll root you guys on.' And they said, ‘No. We’re not playing without you.' To have them go, 'You’re going to do this,’ it was just crazy. It was just an amazing, amazing thing for my spirits. Not that I was necessarily down at that point, but it was really a big lift."

“The next thing you know, we’re playing," Sims said.

He bought a keyboard stand and fused it with pieces from guitar stands to play horizontally. He customized equipment that he can hit with his hands rather than his feet.

"I got to where I could play like this,” he said, leaning over the guitar and picking at the strings. “I got better and better and better at it, and the next thing you know we started writing music again.”

It did not happen overnight. Sims' unsinkable determination, support from his wife Carolyn and encouragement from his friends kept him at it despite the challenges he faced.

“It was terrible," he said. "But as time went on, I did that first guitar solo and all the little tweaks to it, and that worked out, and people liked it."

Sims has since built a multi-functional, professional recording studio in the shop of his Dalton Gardens home, where his bandmates meet in the middle (they're from western Washington and Montana) to hang out, play and record.

And after 40 years, Archer is pleased to announce the release of the band’s first studio album, including the song "Memories," which is the first song the band mates wrote after 25 years of being apart.

"Not only was it the first song we wrote together in 25 years, but it was the very first guitar solo I ever did as a quadriplegic, so it was a big deal to me," Sims said.

Another song on the album, "With Her," Sims wrote to and about Carolyn, who he’ll celebrate 20 years with in September.

"It is my tribute to the three stages of relationship, 'wanting, having and finishing,'" Sims said. "I cannot say enough about the character of a beautiful woman who didn't even know me when I was walking, and 20 years ago chose personality and faith over whether or not this man could walk. People with physical difficulties in their life — I don't call them disabilities, I call them less-abilities — need to know that there are great people out there like her who have their priorities straight. So ... this song is for her."

Buell, of Marysville, Wash., loves Sims and loves sharing his story of perseverance.

"It inspires others not to sell themselves short," he said. "With handicapped people, their only disability is what society puts on them. Dave is proof of that.

"You can't stop the guy. He's a force to be reckoned with."

Archer's debut record, "There Goes Paradise, Side 1; It's All Over Now!" is available at archerrocks.com, theregoesparadise.com and brandnewclassicrock.com and on digital platforms including iTunes, YouTube, Amazon and more.

For those who would like a physical copy of the CD complete with the artwork, eight-page booklet and the full story of the band, Renee's on Ramsey at 3853 N. Ramsey Road in Coeur d'Alene and Postal Plus, 6848 N. Government Way, Dalton Gardens, carry the CD for $10.