Complex sentence: At 13, his mother bought him his first guitar for $18; the next year, in 1964, he started playing for audiences, first at a trailer park on New Jersey Route 34 and then at a local Elks Lodge.
Split into simpler sentences: At 13, his mother bought him his first guitar for $18. Thereafter he started playing for audiences, first at a trailer park on New Jersey Route 34 and then at a local Elks Lodge.