By Rob Nagy

For John Lilley, life has been anything but dull. Since first strapping on a guitar, Lilley’s adventure has placed him on concert stages all over the world, television, music videos, the historic Live Aid and Berlin Wall concerts playing alongside many of rock and rolls biggest names. As he approaches nearly three decades as a member of Philadelphia’s Hooters, Lilley is set to spread his wings as he embarks on his first solo effort in years fronting the John Lilley Project. With a series of lives dates under his belt and a new album in production, he is ready to share his music with the world.

As an original member of Robert Hazard and the Heroes, Lilley wasted no time showcasing his guitar skills on Hazard’s 1981 self titled debut paving the way for even bigger and better opportunities. Following his departure from Robert Hazard, the Hooters, who were on the verge of breaking big nationally, wasted no time enlisting Lilley’s talents. He appeared on the bands 1983 independent debut “Amore” followed by national releases “Nervous Night” (1985), “One Way Home”(1987), “Zig Zag” (1989) and “Out of Body”(1993). Lilley and company performed at the original 1985 Live Aid concert in Philadelphia, the Amnesty International Concert at Giants Stadium in 1986 and 1990’s Berlin Wall concert in Germany. With all the glory and accolades of being a rock star there is the reality that everything runs its own course and eventually comes to an end. By 1995 the Hooters had reached their plateau and amicably took a lengthy hiatus, with band members moving into a varied directions. Lilley found himself exhausted and in need of a break from the music business. He abruptly put down the guitar indefinitely and eventually found himself a business owner working as a landscape and design artist catering to upscale clients. While Lilley was very talented and financially successful in his new venture, music would eventually knock on his door again. In 2001 radio legend Pierre Robert was planning his twentieth anniversary celebration at the WMMR by hosting a concert at the Philadelphia Spectrum. A long time friend of Lilley’s and the rest of the band, Robert enlisted the talents of the Hooters to headline the event. This was the first time the band would play together on stage since taking their six year hiatus.. On the heels of this one show Lilley’s urge to once again play music was too strong to ignore. He picked up his guitar and noticed a newly charged and reinvigorated artist emerging. Lilley found himself playing in his home recording studio at all hours of the night creating, what he poetically referred to as “The awakening of this sleepy musical cowboy”. While Lilley wants to see where this new direction will lead, he doesn’t want to sound like everyone else and get lost in a sea of artists many of whom sound the same. “I don’t want to be a singer songwriter, which I call, ‘Singer songwiners’”, says Lilley. “I want to develop a character, which I’m quickly discovering and is kind of neat and people don’t really know. The songs are personal about stuff that happens and how you look it. It’s scary and unnerving being the front guy. I’m used to being the book between the two bookends, like the Hooters. They do all the talking I don’t have to say anything. I’ve got none of that now. It’s kind of going back to where I started years ago. “With the Hooters I’m not locked to a microphone”, says Lilley. “Now I’m finding out what that’s like. It’s really a lot of fun.” While touring and recording with the Hooters, months of writing songs and rehearsing his own band Lilley started to test the waters playing shows at small hundred seat venues around South Jersey and the Philly suburbs. His four piece band, includes Tom Hampton on guitar, Fred DiTomasso on bass, Rick Bell piano/organ and Tommy Geddes on drums. Lilley has been pleasantly surprised with the warm reception he has been receiving. Having experienced being at the top and the bottom, with a lot of in between, Lilley is not naive when it comes to work involved in what he is now involved in fronting his own band. “Right now the state of the music business is just so whacky”, says Lilley. “What’s the right thing to do? To do it on your own you have to get a distributor. Then you gotta promote it. I don’t have a huge machine behind me, right now it’s just me doing everything. I am calling clubs and saying, ‘Hey this is John Lilley from the Hooters and I’ve got this band. I’d like to come play your club do you have any open dates? I haven’t had a problem yet, not in four times. I’d like to play some shows in the city but I’d like to play outside the city to really shake the cobwebs out, dust it off, polish it up a bit. This will never be a machine but I want to keep it fun. I love playing the small places, 100, 150 people. I like the intimacy of it. I’m testing the waters doing these shows right now.” Of course with a band and doing live shows comes the promotional tool, making a record, needing to spread the word on a larger scale. “I want to make a proper record”, says Lilley. “I want to have something on the radio. I want to be able to have something for my fans to buy and something I can be proud of. I am still writing songs and seeing what works on stage and what doesn’t. I am hoping to have something released by April of this year.” As if playing with the Hooters and doing his own solo gig isn’t enough, Lilley has given private guitar instruction for years and continues to do so out of his West Chester studio. “I teach guitar privately”, says Lilley, “I enjoy doing that. I have some great guitar students and I find it incredibly rewarding getting into people’s heads, learning how other people comprehend things. When they hit their own personal musical walls I help them break through it. I really get so much out of teaching.” With such an impressive career already Lilley has nothing to prove to anyone but himself and, perhaps, his fans. When you turn fifty everything changes and not just your eye sight”, says Lilley. “You kind of learn to say “No” but then you also learn to say “Yes” to things. I am being myself. I’m very comfortable doing this right now because it’s so new. It’s my thing and I am very excited about that. I really have a great life.”

for more info on John Lilley go to www.johnlilley.com, www.myspace.com/johnlilleymusic, or www.reverbnation.com/johnlilley

Photo by Rob Nagy