Family man first — best wife and two crazy boys — and a rock vocalist second. Born and raised in New Jersey, owner of a construction company, and somewhere along the way discovered that the stage is the best place to leave everything on the floor. Forty going on twenty-five, with a voice that sounds like he means every word.

His first album at age five was Rhinestone Cowboy by Glen Campbell. It went downhill from there — in the best possible way. Today he lives for the moment the crowd starts singing along. "Makes it all worth it."

It started on a February night in 1964. John watched the Beatles on Ed Sullivan — specifically John Lennon — and decided then and there he was going to play guitar. The next day he sketched Lennon's guitar on a piece of plywood and chiseled it out with a screwdriver and a hammer. He never stopped from that moment on, playing until his fingers bled, working through every era of rock until the music became entirely his own.

Decades of bands followed: high school groups in the late 60s, Fragile Glass in the early 70s — winning every Battle of the Bands they entered — then Jinn through the mid-70s to early 80s with brother Brian on bass, culminating in opening for Blackfoot at the Showplace in Dover, NJ. The 80s and 90s brought Legacy, five years as Thursday house band at the Fireside in Denville, and eventually acoustic nights at Poor Henry's in Montville with the McArdle Brothers.

Brother Brian and son-in-law Chris started sitting in on those acoustic nights — and 3 Shades of Green was born. They kicked it up a notch, went fully electric, and haven't looked back. John and Chris still occasionally perform as an acoustic duo. One person kept him going through every rough patch of learning something new: a bandmate from the early days who once said, half-joking, "Hey John, when are you really going to learn how to play that thing?" He never forgot it. Thanks, John Groves.

It all started the morning after seeing the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. Brian and his brother John grabbed a piece of plywood and chiseled out the shapes of Paul's bass and John Lennon's guitar with a screwdriver and a hammer. John never stopped — played until his fingers bled. Brian picked up a hockey stick instead and bled from every other part of his body.

Years later, John pulled him in with a single afternoon lesson — "I taught him Ocean by Led Zeppelin and said: you're my new bass player." They recruited drummer Gary Worrell, rehearsed 15 songs, and booked their first gig. The day before it, Brian took a stick to the mouth at a hockey game — front tooth out, 34 stitches in his lip. John's response: "The show must go on." They played those 15 songs about four times each that night, and the band Jinn was born.

Life pulled him away — Wall Street, Manhattan, a family — for 25 years. Then an old friend called about a Battle of the Bands, the brothers played together again, and the bug came roaring back. Friday nights at Poor Henry's led to the formation of 3 Shades of Green — a name they found on a men's room wall.

Bio coming soon.