Keith St John

Biography

Keith St John's parents, both school teachers, recorded Keith's first formal vocal performances at age 2 on cassette tapes. Eventually they decided to move to Long Island with their only child Keith just before his entrance into the first grade. While growing up in an environment of classical music, folk music, jazz, and broadway, young Keith wound up becoming a classically trained tympanist and percussionist who embarked on his first overseas tour at age 17. Eventually he segued from performing in 88 piece orchestras to playing clubs in heavy metal cover bands as a singing rock drummer. Ultimately his high ranged bluesy vocal pipes broke him out from behind the drums altogether.

Early Years

In his early days St John recorded his first demo tape which ultimately got him signed to Atlantic Records. Atlantic head of A&R Jason Flom's new found band, Big Trouble, featured lead vocalist Keith St John, drummer Bobby Rondinelli (Rainbow, Black Sabbath), guitarist Jon Levin (Dokken), and bassist Tommy Henriksen (Alice Cooper).

Following Big Trouble, St John was recruited by an independent management company that wanted to build a 'supergroup' in Los Angeles based on St John's own music and creative vision. In the 90's Keith emerged on the Hollywood rock scene with his newly formed band St John. While still tweeking the St John sound and vision, Keith got an offer from legendary rock bassist Rudy Sarzo to join his band Sun King which was already signed to Giant Records by legendary label boss Irving Azoff. The band featured Sarzo on bass (Ozzy Osbourne, Whitesnake, Quiet Riot) and John 5 on guitar (Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie).

Throughout the late 90's and 2000's Keith was approached by many of L.A.'s established rock artists, managers, and record labels to sing and collaborate on up and coming projects. Many of those projects included former members of well established L.A. bands such as CC DeVille (Poison), James Kottak (Scorpions/Kingdom Come), Jeff Young (Megadeth), Chuck Wright (Quiet Riot/House of Lords), and Gregg D’Angelo (White Lion). St John also co-wrote and recorded the album Immoral Fabric with the band Medicine Wheel which featured guitarist Marc Ferrari (Keel) and drummer Ray Luzier (Korn).

Montrose (1998-2012)

Montrose were a hard rock band formed by legendary guitarist Ronnie Montrose in 1973 with original Montrose vocalist Sammy Hagar, bassist Bill Church, and drummer Denny Carmassi. Often cited as 'America's answer to Led Zeppelin', the first Montrose album produced by Ted Templeman is held to be highly influential amongst many hard rock/heavy metal musicians. Hagar and Ronnie Montrose parted ways in 1974 after which Montrose recorded two more studio albums with singer Bob James. By 1978, Ronnie Montrose was recording his first solo guitar album. Following almost two decades of solo projects, making records with his band Gamma, and producing other bands, Ronnie Montrose was introduced to Keith St John by their mutual friend and session keyboardist Ed Roth. St John and Montrose immediately hit it off both personally and musically which soon inspired Ronnie Montrose to reform the band Montrose with his new protege vocalist Keith St John. Keith helped Ronnie recruit new members from the L.A. scene which Keith was by then well acquainted, and the first new Montrose lineup included drummer Pat Torpey (Mr Big) and bassist Chuck Wright (Quiet Riot/House of Lords). Other members that toured and/or recorded with Montrose during the 'Keith' years include drummer Eric Singer (Kiss), bassist Ricky Phillips (Bad English/The Babys/Styx), drummer "Wild" Mick Brown (Dokken/Ted Nugent), bassist Mick Mahan (Pat Benatar), drummer Jimmy Degrasso (Megadeth), bassist David Ellefson (Megadeth), and bassist Sean McNabb (Burning Rain/Quiet Riot).

When Keith St John and Ronnie Montrose met in 1998, they had begun writing together and recording many home spun demos of new songs, some of which would make it into live Montrose shows during the first few years the 'new' Montrose was on tour. Pat Torpey and Chuck Wright also participated in recording some studio demos of Ronnie and Keith's music. With some revisions to those early songs and with some added new fresh material, in 2006 Ronnie and Keith went into the studio to record a new record with Eric Singer on drums and Ricky Phillips on bass. The untitled album as of yet has not been be released. Keith St John had the longest tenure of any individual that ever worked with Ronnie Montrose at around 13 years. Sammy Hagar worked with Montrose around 2 years, and Bob James around 3 years. Ronnie had stayed in the Edgar Winter group only around 1 year in 1972.

Managed primarily by Scott Booray (Steve Miller), Montrose with Keith St John, Ronnie Montrose, and a very talented rotating cast of drummers and bass players toured mainly in the U.S. playing large outdoor festivals, arena shows, theaters, and clubs. Some touring highlites include performing at the Woodstock 40th Anniversary at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco where Montrose opened their set with The Who's 'My Generation,' and being billed over the years with iconic arena bands such as Journey, Def Leppard, The Scorpions, Cheap Trick, Sammy Hagar, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Whitesnake, Dokken and many other rock legends. Ronnie Montrose reportedly took his own life on March 3, 2012 after which St John performed at a grand memorial concert in his honor at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco. Other performers included Sammy Hagar, (Van Halen/Montrose) Neal Schon (Journey), Steve Smith (Journey), Joe Satriani, Denny Carmassi (Heart/Montrose), Eric Singer & Tommy Thayer (Kiss), Eric Martin (Mr. Big), Ricky Phillips (Styx/Montrose), Jimmy DeGrasso, Tesla (full band), and Gamma. Keith St John and Doug Aldrich (Whitesnake/Burning Rain) also performed a tribute to Ronnie Montrose at the Iridium Theater in New York City on April 30, 2012 which was streamed over the World Wide Web and included the Les Paul Trio with Anton Fig. In 2015 Keith St John toured extensively in the U.S. with Tracii Guns (Guns and Roses/L.A. Guns) and Rudy Sarzo (Ozzy Osbourne/Whitesnake/Dio) playing their renditions of anthems from their prior bands. Their set every night included renditions of the Montrose hits Rock Candy and Bad Motor Scooter which were highly critically acclaimed in reviews by rock journalists show after show.

Burning Rain (1998-present)

In 1998, Keith met up with guitarist Doug Aldrich (Whitesnake/Dio) and demo'd their first few songs for the Japan-based record label, Pony Canyon for what was to evolve into the band Burning Rain. St John and Aldrich were introduced by bassist Ian Mayo who was a member of St John's Hollywood based band, Crushed Flowers, and also a member of Aldrich's band Bad Moon Rising. Ian Mayo subsequently became the bassist for the new band, whos lineup was rounded out and completed by L.A. based session drummer Alexx Makarovich.

Following their debut album entitled 'Burning Rain,' St John and Aldrich recorded two more studio albums under the name Burning Rain. The song "Cherie Don't Break My Heart" officially charted #1 on a German rock radio station and charted in the top 10 on many other European radio stations the year it was released. The band has toured Japan, Europe, and the U.S. and current members include bassist Sean McNabb (Dokken/Quiet Riot) and drummer Matt Starr (Mr. Big/Ace Frehley). The band is reportedly planning a 4th release sometime in 2016 and is currently booking live dates in 2016 as well. Current news can be found here: www.BurningRain.net

Burning Rain Discography

Burning Rain released 1999 label: Pony Canyon territory: Japan

Pleasure to Burn released 2000 labels: Pony Canyon/Z-Records territories: Japan/Europe

Epic Obsession released 2013 labels: Frontiers/Warner Japan territories: World/Japan

Lynch Mob / George Lynch (2010-2015)

In 2010 Keith was asked to fill in for Lynch Mob frontman Oni Logan for some west coast tour dates that Oni could not attend. This stint lead to an ongoing relationship with legendary guitarist George Lynch. Keith and George wrote and recorded songs for Lynch's 2011 solo album Kill All Control which received very high critical acclaim from Rock and Heavy Metal reviewers. Songs titles written by Lynch and St John for the album Kill All Control include Kill All Control, Fly On the Wall, Resurrect Your Soul, Rattlesnake, and Man On Fire. The most significant live performance by Keith with Lynch Mob was to a packed house at the Saitama Super Arena in Tokyo Japan in 2014 which holds approximately 36,000 people.

Frontman for notable touring bands

Keith St John has been hired to tour as frontman for several other internationally well known rock bands. Those bands include The Neal Schon (Journey) Band (2010), Sweet (band) featuring Steve Priest (2010), Quiet Riot (2012), Nazareth featuring Manny Charlton (2013), Lynch Mob featuring George Lynch (Dokken) and Kevin Baldes (Lit) (2013-2014) Tracii Guns L.A. Guns (aka "Gunzo")featuring Rudy Sarzo (Ozzy Osbourne, Whitesnake, Quiet Riot) (2015), Chicago Transit Authority, Howard Leese (Heart (band)) (2009-2010), The Groove Remains the Same / Bonzo Bash (2010-2013)