Jerry Kruz was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1948 and moved with his family to the east end of Vancouver, British Columbia, when he was still a toddler. Eventually the family ended up in the not yet trendy Vancouver neighbourhood of Kitsilano, where Jerry's Catholic parents envisioned he would spend his early years preparing to enter the priesthood. By the fifth grade, however, he had lost all interest in school. After years of verbal and physical abuse, he believed he could do better on his own and started working in his father's print shop at the age of ten. At sixteen he had quit going to school and was working various jobs, including delivering fish and chips, assisting at a meat market, assembling bicycles and delivering telegrams. When the opportunity came along to run a Christmas tree stand with his best friend, he jumped at the opportunity. It was then that Kruz discovered he could successfully operate his own business. Eventually he was given the chance to manage one of Vancouver's many coffeehouses and from there he grew to become one of western Canada's youngest and most successful music promoters, eventually giving rise to one of the first psychedelic dance halls in North America, The Afterthought. Jerry and his wife, Julie, live in Victoria, British Columbia.