Joe Vitale Jr

Joe Vitale Jr. started his career early on, with the very first time he performed on stage with Crosby, Stills & Nash at age 10. Up to that point in his life he had wanted to become an astronaut, but one time on stage changed everything. Joe got to sit in on "Teach Your Children" at Blossom Music Center in Akron Ohio before 19,000 screaming CSN fans. Though at the time this was on a tambourine he treated it as though he were playing drums or lead guitar. The experience was enough that he traded in his space suit for stage cloths. Joe then practiced drums through middle school and also picked up and added Guitar in High School.

While in High School, at only age 16, Joe Jr. had a chance to play live drum set with Joe Walsh. The keyboard player for that tour never showed up and being that Joe Vitale Sr. is also an incredible keyboardist, Joe Walsh had Joe Sr. play keyboards and Joe Jr. fill in for his dad on drum set. Playing 2 shows one at the Ohio State Fair in Columbus, Ohio (Joe Vitale Jr.'s Home State), and the other at Norfolk, Virginia Naval Base. This was the first glimpse of what he would be doing for a career one day.

Shortly after this Joe headed to college to further his musical abilities. However, while at at Mount Union College, he had an opportunity to jump straight into his career and start playing pro with the Stephen Stills Blues Band in 1998. Again Joe Jr. traded in his collegic career (carrying a 3.57 GPA) for the limelight Along side his dad, Joe Jr. played Latin percussion.

A few months later after playing with Stephen Stills for several gigs he was hired by Crosby, Stills & Nash to play Latin percussion and fill in on drums when veteran Rock drummer Joe Vitale Sr. played Keyboards on various songs. Needless to say Joe Jr. jumped at the opportunity to play with CSN and his dad in the same band that over a decade earlier had started his dream.

In early 2000 Joe Jr. and Joe Sr. started to work for Sonic Foundry (Now Sony Pictures Digital) creating loop libraries for their premier music software, "Acid Pro". The first library was called simply, Latin Percussion. Since that library, the Vitale Team has created 4 libraries for Sony Pictures Digital. These Include: Latin Percussion, Junkyard Rhythms, and now the newly released Organ Donor and coming soon Organ Recipient. The last 2 libraries are collections of Vintage recorded B3 Organ Loop Libraries. Check out http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/ for more details and ordering information. Or simply check out the store section of this site.

Also in 2000, Joe Jr. started working as a Studio manager for Tae Bo at Redball Records, the audio studio for the renowned workout video series. He worked their for 7 months working in the studio and cutting tracks. If you check out the Tae Bo Live 4-Pack Collection, currently on DVD and VHS, you can hear one of Joe Vitale Jr.'s remixed versions of "Oye Como Va". It is song 2 on the Advanced collection which is the red video.

After leaving Redball Records in January of 2001, Joe started his own personal music company which he is the CEO and owner of. His company, "Vari Loud Musik", has been the mother ship of his current music career for submitting his demo projects to his loop libraries.

In late 2000, Joe Vitale Jr. started recording his personal album. Now Joe Jr. had been recording music since he was 14 in 1992 when his family got him a 8 track tape cassette recorder. They knew that this would provide him with the tools that he needed to chase after and catch his dreams of one day being a recording artist and song writer. Joe recorded his first song toward his album "Last Night" in Fall of 2000. And has continued to date working and tweaking his music. In early 2004 he will complete his album. His style has been classified as Industrial Classic Rock & has received very positive comments and reviews of his album. Even once completed Joe can never stop recording. Just in sifting through old material along with his forward momentum of recording new songs there have been over 50 songs he has considered for his first full length album.

Joe Vitale Jr. has worked very hard and has had to endure a lot of personal and financial hurtles to continue his dream. His personal attitude is to never stop and push forward with everything and to never give up. The music industry is a very difficult place to break into and stay inside, but through personal perseverance and tenacity you can achieve all your goals and dreams. But the key is you have to always look up and thank God for your gifts and talents and pray where he wants to take you on this Mysterious game called Life.

I have played in several bands from Crosby Stills and Nash to Joe Walsh. I have also been working on the New Stephen Stills records as well as my own solo album.

Yes I do play Live. It varies from venue to venue. Some are small and some are large. Vague I know, but it gives a basic description.

Joe Walsh, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, David Bowie, Nine Inch Nails.