JOHNNY O & THE CLASSIC DOGS OF LOVE REUNION SHOW – SUNDAY JANUARY 27th

We made contact with JOHNNY O over the phone about his up coming reunion show that will be taking place at the end of January at Michaels Cafe in Bensalem…here’s some info on things…

OOT Question: How did it all begin for you and when?

JOHNNY O – “1985 is when we started, but didn’t get on a roll until 1986. It was the time of big hair bands, Tommy Conwell.and the like. Not too much soul or funk going on.  So, being the “brain” I was, and broke as all hell, came up with name first(which everyone hated)…then put the members together. had some help from Bobby Micheals, who had me front his band “V-8″ for a year or so before the dogs. Bobby was ‘blues”, but I wanted funky stuff , so on October 31st, SWEENEY’S TAVERN was the first to see THE CLASSIC DOGS OF LOVE!  This was a  combo of Motown,blues, funk and soul,with medleys to die for! no “stop and start” for us…which I think was one of the keys to our success. People loved it.Thanx to “saturday night live.” the horns were most important. Now we could do “Chicago”,Lighthouse, Sly, Blood  Sweat and  Tears and the like….which the clubs wanted badly but couldn’t afford. With a 5 dollar cover and adds from ‘OUT ON THE TOWN”….lol, we became the”TALK OF THE TOWN’….
OOT Question: So how was the money back then?
“We made a few bucks playing the music we loved” …yes we all made some good bucks back then”

OOT Question: What can we expect to see at this upcoming Reunion Show?

Johnny O -“What you will see on Jan. 27th are most of the ORIGINAL PLAYERS from that first band! Gary, Tony,Cassius, Ray,Wally, Billy….are all originals. Ted, my favorite sax player of all time, won’t be there because of health issues.Bobby Micheals will do sax and is more than qualified, and was there in the beginning also! This show will be special because it’s in the northeast, where it all started! I remember having one of biggest shows ever at the”BARN”…so many people there, the upstairs floor would move up and down from the dancing! Tommassos,where we got our”miller genuine draft” sponsor was another one….just crazy… the ski trips..wow. Anyway, i hope you all will have a ball, just like the good old days, when the crowd told us what to play…AND WE PLAYED IT!!! Hope to see everyone there! remember…no Justin Bieber here…no rap…,just good old rock and soul!There have been a lot of versions of the dogs since the beginning, but this version was always my favorite”