The Man Behind
The TRUTH
The TRUTH
The TRUTH is a collection of ten original songs by producer/songwriter Johnny Stassi and was recorded with an "all-star" ensemble. Johnny plays guitar, percussion and does vocals.
Billy Stark was "the energy" on piano, keyboards and B-3. Kevin Koike on lead guitar, mandolin and all the "coolshit". Troy Percle, a truly "GREAT DRUMMER", on drums. Chris Eaton played bass guitar and some realy cool slide on The Difference. The project was recorded at Palm Street Studio in late 2003. Co-producer Nicholas Rhodes was the engineer on the project. Wendell E. Usie on harmonica and a killer horn section featuring Jimmy George, Randall Loupe, and James Spells.
Delma Trosclair and the Heaven Seekers, Laura Robinson and Michelle Scott, provided the soulful voices on FAITH and THIS FEVER.
Violinist Kent Voisin on The Truth and The Difference.
"I'll never forget the first time I saw the Beatles. It was on the news during their first trip to America. And I was glued to the television for the ED SULLIVAN Show appearance. That's when I first knew what I wanted to be, a BEATLE. Hey, I was only six years old.
At eleven I started playing drums after seeing a local band play "Lookin' Out My Back Door" by Creedence Clearwater Revival. I bought the '45 and my little brother had a small drum set. So I went home and learned it.
Well, The BEATLES broke up before I got my chance, but by age sixteen I was playing in garage bands. Did a few gigs here and there but no big deal. Being a drummer was often frustrating, I never got to choose the music we played. I was into DEEP PURPLE, ELVIS, EMERSON LAKE AND PALMER, YES, DYLAN, THE BEATLES, AEROSMITH, and URIAH HEEP. For you youngsters, those where bands, not drugs.
When I went off to college(LSU) I bought my first guitar. I started off trying to write my own stuff mostly because I couldn't play anybody else's. I stuck to playing the drums when I was playing in a group but spent hours alone trying to write songs on my acoustic. I spent a couple of years of my young adulthood as a starving musician, but my mom would bring bags of groceries and pots of spaghetti and she made the best spaghetti sauce, so it was never too bad.
I played with alot of different local bands, mostly just weekend warriors. Just enough to wet the ego and scratch the itch.
I started studying music production in the late '70's. One morning in the fall of 1986 around six in the morning under a palm tree on the beach, in Ft.Lauderdale, I wrote Lifeguard on a piece of a box with a pencil and my acoustic. It was the first thing I had writen that I felt really good about.
Almost twenty years later I decided it was time to get this done, to record a collection of the songs I had written over the years. To choose would be tough. Once the recording had begun I was blown away by the tracks we had recorded. After the second day I went home and wrote This Fever and Walk On.
I recorded this project with some old friends and some new friends and these guys and gals where incredible. It was so much fun, nothing but positve energy.
Thank you, Johnny
Second CD coming soon!
Billy Stark was "the energy" on piano, keyboards and B-3. Kevin Koike on lead guitar, mandolin and all the "coolshit". Troy Percle, a truly "GREAT DRUMMER", on drums. Chris Eaton played bass guitar and some realy cool slide on The Difference. The project was recorded at Palm Street Studio in late 2003. Co-producer Nicholas Rhodes was the engineer on the project. Wendell E. Usie on harmonica and a killer horn section featuring Jimmy George, Randall Loupe, and James Spells.
Delma Trosclair and the Heaven Seekers, Laura Robinson and Michelle Scott, provided the soulful voices on FAITH and THIS FEVER.
Violinist Kent Voisin on The Truth and The Difference.
"I'll never forget the first time I saw the Beatles. It was on the news during their first trip to America. And I was glued to the television for the ED SULLIVAN Show appearance. That's when I first knew what I wanted to be, a BEATLE. Hey, I was only six years old.
At eleven I started playing drums after seeing a local band play "Lookin' Out My Back Door" by Creedence Clearwater Revival. I bought the '45 and my little brother had a small drum set. So I went home and learned it.
Well, The BEATLES broke up before I got my chance, but by age sixteen I was playing in garage bands. Did a few gigs here and there but no big deal. Being a drummer was often frustrating, I never got to choose the music we played. I was into DEEP PURPLE, ELVIS, EMERSON LAKE AND PALMER, YES, DYLAN, THE BEATLES, AEROSMITH, and URIAH HEEP. For you youngsters, those where bands, not drugs.
When I went off to college(LSU) I bought my first guitar. I started off trying to write my own stuff mostly because I couldn't play anybody else's. I stuck to playing the drums when I was playing in a group but spent hours alone trying to write songs on my acoustic. I spent a couple of years of my young adulthood as a starving musician, but my mom would bring bags of groceries and pots of spaghetti and she made the best spaghetti sauce, so it was never too bad.
I played with alot of different local bands, mostly just weekend warriors. Just enough to wet the ego and scratch the itch.
I started studying music production in the late '70's. One morning in the fall of 1986 around six in the morning under a palm tree on the beach, in Ft.Lauderdale, I wrote Lifeguard on a piece of a box with a pencil and my acoustic. It was the first thing I had writen that I felt really good about.
Almost twenty years later I decided it was time to get this done, to record a collection of the songs I had written over the years. To choose would be tough. Once the recording had begun I was blown away by the tracks we had recorded. After the second day I went home and wrote This Fever and Walk On.
I recorded this project with some old friends and some new friends and these guys and gals where incredible. It was so much fun, nothing but positve energy.
Thank you, Johnny
Second CD coming soon!