If GI Joe was right, and knowing really is half the battle, singer/songwriter Toothpick has the knowledge and experiences to win both the battle and the war.

To Toothpick, life is all about the experience.

“I basically just want to try everything. I want to see the country and live through all different kinds of stuff,” he says. “I just want to play in front of as many kids across the country as I possibly can, listen to as many other bands as I can while playing shows.”

Toothpick, whose real name is Doug Ray, had this love of the experience of music instilled in him early on in his childhood by his folk-musician mother.

“My mom always encouraged me to try everything. She played guitar and sang and there were always people around rehearsing and going to gigs, and I just thought it was awesome and I wanted to be a part of it,” he says.

Toothpick, a native of White Plains, N.Y., began playing music at a young age, but it wasn’t until college that he realized music was what he had to do.

“About the time I got to college, I really started playing in front of crowds and doing MC battles, and the excitement generated on stage became very addictive,” he says. “I just wanted to do it all the time; the rush of being nervous and trying new shit, it was addicting.”

In his senior year at the State University of New York at Albany, Toothpick began as the frontman of the band Bad Ronald, which saw success when its 2001 video “Let’s Begin” was featured on Total Request Live.

The members of the band were going in different directions musically, however, and decided to part ways, although they still occasionally write music together.

And thus, after the disassembly of Bad Ronald, began Toothpick’s quest to experience everything.

“After Bad Ronald, I started to see what really mattered and what kind of experiences would end up staying with me, as a musician and as a person,” he says.

Also, Toothpick’s biggest success came after Bad Ronald — writing and performing the theme song for Morgan Spurlock’s award-winning documentary “Super Size Me.”

Along with Toothpick’s bevy of experiences and changing career came a changing persona.

“In college, I was into chasing girls and smoking reefer — now I’m way more into just playing music and writing music, checking out other bands, traveling and meeting people,” he says. “I’m definitely more into the music side of things. I still smoke the reefer, but I just try to keep it all together.”

Perhaps not the conventional wisdom GI Joe once offered, but at least we know. And knowing is half the battle.

Who: Toothpick

Where: M-Shop

When: 8 p.m. Thursday

Cost: $6 student, $8 public