Over the years, I’ve been lucky to have had the opportunity to make music with some of the most talented group of musicians around.  I’m honored to call them all my friends. My Pirates For Peace family, my Hit Play family, my Hot Love family,  bands I’d been in, The Sharks, Special 20, the many looks of Double Fisted…all special to me. This tiny part of Connecticut has brilliant talent.  It’s not hard to find either, just hit a local club on any given weekend…you’ll be blown away.

 

As musicians, we put out music for the people. Not necessarily the music we want to hear or play day in and day out.  Don’t get me wrong, we love it, but mostly it’s FOR THE PEOPLE.

Having said that, every so often a project comes along that we do for OURSELVES.  It’s rare but when it happens, it’s wonderful.

 

February of 2016 I got a call from Tom Coon (singer for the Sharks) asking if I’d be interested in joining an STP tribute band he was thinking of putting together with some friends.  Ummm STP? Robert DeLeo’s bass lines?  I thought about it for about 2 seconds. 

HELL YEAH!

Right away I started re-listening to my STP catalogue and set out to learn my parts.

 

We got together at the practice spot where I met mad man drummer Greg Trabandt and guitarist John Erkan, and out of the box we knew this was going to be something special. Greg blew me away with his chops, Toms voice could pass for Scott Weiland if you close your eyes and Johnny Jukebox had his amp cranked to 11 and was nailing Dean DeLeo’s sound perfectly. His sound was as big as his personality and his laugh.  When he heard something he liked, I could hear his laugh over the sound of the band cranking. He said it was his goal to knock the tiles out of the ceiling of our practice spot.

Things progressed as best as they could with busy musicians schedules and we were looking forward to booking sometime late summer.

 

July 3rd, Johnny and his band Alter Ego played a gig at Margaritaville inside the Mohegan Sun.  I’m sure they ripped it hard.  At some point later that night, Johnny left us.

 

His passing was a tragic loss to his family, fiancé, band mates and friends as well as the areas music scene.

The summer came and went and eventually Johnny’s fiancé was ready to begin collecting his gear from the practice spot. She contacted Tom and he agreed to get Johns stuff together from where it sat since our last practice. He grabbed Johns pedal boards and wires, etc, and on his second trip to grab Johns amp, a ceiling tile had fallen right in the spot where his pedal board was moments earlier.

MESSAGE RECEIVED

 

Seems this project was meant to continue.  During one of their duo gigs, Tom mentioned the idea to Dan Watson who said “I might be interested in that”.  He locked himself in his practice room and learned songs he’d never even heard before. Needless to say, Dan is ROCKING IT. I’ll let the results speak for themselves.

 

We have enjoyed the process and look forward to bringing the incredible experience of an STP concert to our you! And best of all, we are doing it for ourselves as well!!