Alex Grossi
Encyclopedia
Alex Grossi is an American
guitarist
, best known as the guitarist of heavy metal band Quiet Riot
.
. At age 17 he got a job teaching guitar lessons at Riccardo's Music Center in East Hartford
. While living in Connecticut, he was lead guitarist for the band, Wake Up Jack. Grossi legally changed his name from Lesbines before finishing his high school career. Upon finishing high school, he moved to Boston where he joined up with Angry Salad
. The band was soon signed to Atlantic Records
and toured extensively until 2001, when the AOL/TIME WARNER merger cost them their deal. The band was bought out of their second record and went their separate ways. Grossi then re-located to Los Angeles and quickly became one the hardest working guitarists in town, eventually landing him the guitar spot in Quiet Riot
when the band re-formed in 2004.
Grossi toured with Quiet Riot
throughout 2005,including the "Rock Never Stops tour
" that featured CINDERELLA, RATT and FIREHOUSE, and returned in August 2006 after the departure of Neil Citron
. Although Citron appears on the Quiet Riot album Rehab
, Grossi contributed songwriting on the songs "Free" and "Stange Daze" and joined in for this album's tour, which included feature slots at the 2007 Sweden Rock Festival as well as the first annual Rocklahoma Festival. Alex remained in the band until vocalist Kevin DuBrow's death. Quiet Riot disbanded in January 2008.
Alex has also played with such artists as Bang Tango
, Steven Adler
of Guns N' Roses
, Jani Lane
of Warrant, (with whom he performed the Warrant classic "I saw Red" for VH1'S "METAL MANIA:STRIPPED ON THE STRIP DVD, Beautiful Creatures
, Love/Hate
and Skid Row (U.S. band)
In 2008, Grossi put together the "DIZZY/JIZZY tour which featured Dizzy Reed
's Hookers N' Blow and Jizzy Pearl
's Love/Hate
. In addition, Grossi contributed Guitar to Dizzy Reed's upcoming solo record, which is being produced by GN'R alumni Del James
. No release date has yet been set.
In early 2009 Grossi signed on to tour with original Guns N' Roses
drummer Steven Adler
following his stint on the hit VH1 series Sober House for a U.S. tour with his band Adler's Appetite
.
Alex's music has also been used in multiple T.V. and motion pictures including the Quincy Jones
produced film "The Smokers", the FX hit series Sons of Anarchy
as well as the Walt Disney/Touchstone picture The Proposal
, He has also done several TV appearances including a 2003 documentary on the Rhode Island nightclub fire for the LIFETIME
network.
In 2009 Alex took part in the [PRS ROAD SHOW], put on by Paul Reed Smith
guitars (Alex has been an endorsee for 10 years and counting). Currently Alex and Adler's Appetite
are laying the groundwork for a new record, as well as the release of Adler's first ever drum instructional DVD, which is set to be released in the fall/winter on 2009.
In 2010 Adler's Appetite
debuted their first original material with the release of "Alive", a new single. The song was released in conjunction with Adler's New York Times Bestseller tell-all biography "My Appetite for Detstruction: Sex, Drugs and Guns N'Roses". The band also did a 50 city US tour in support of the release. On Sept. 13 2010 it was announced that Quiet Riot
would be reforming with the line up consisting of Alex, Frankie Banali
, Chuck Wright
and new vocalist Mark Huff.
In 2011 Alex formed Hotel Diablo with W.A.S.P.
bassist and drummer Mike Duda and Mike Dupke
and Adler's Appetite
vocalist Rick Stitch
. The band entered the studio with former Guns N' Roses
and Rockstar Supernova guitarist Gilby Clarke
producing. They released the first tarck "Set it Off" via itunes
in July.The band played it's first show at the whisky a go go
in Hollywood on September, 2nd 2011 and is planning on releasing a full length album in 2012.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
, best known as the guitarist of heavy metal band Quiet Riot
Quiet Riot
Quiet Riot is an American Heavy Metal band. They are best known for their hit singles "Metal Health" and "Cum On Feel the Noize". They were founded in 1973 by guitarist Randy Rhoads and bassist Kelly Garni, under the original name Mach 1, before changing the name to Little Women and finally Quiet...
.
Early life and career
Alexander Nicholas Grossi was born Alexander Nicholas Lesbines on November 22, 1976 and grew up in South Windsor, ConnecticutSouth Windsor, Connecticut
-History:In 1659, Thomas Burnham purchased the tract of land now covered by the towns of South Windsor and East Hartford from Tantinomo, chief sachem of the Podunk Indians. Burnham lived on the land and later willed it to his nine children...
. At age 17 he got a job teaching guitar lessons at Riccardo's Music Center in East Hartford
East Hartford, Connecticut
East Hartford is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 51,252 at the 2010 census.-Geography:...
. While living in Connecticut, he was lead guitarist for the band, Wake Up Jack. Grossi legally changed his name from Lesbines before finishing his high school career. Upon finishing high school, he moved to Boston where he joined up with Angry Salad
Angry Salad
Angry Salad was an alternative rock band from Boston, Massachusetts. The band formed at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island in 1991.Before their major label deal, they had 1 full length CD Bizarre Gardening Accident and 1 EP The Guinea Pig EP. Angry Salad had an enthusiastic New England...
. The band was soon signed to Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
and toured extensively until 2001, when the AOL/TIME WARNER merger cost them their deal. The band was bought out of their second record and went their separate ways. Grossi then re-located to Los Angeles and quickly became one the hardest working guitarists in town, eventually landing him the guitar spot in Quiet Riot
Quiet Riot
Quiet Riot is an American Heavy Metal band. They are best known for their hit singles "Metal Health" and "Cum On Feel the Noize". They were founded in 1973 by guitarist Randy Rhoads and bassist Kelly Garni, under the original name Mach 1, before changing the name to Little Women and finally Quiet...
when the band re-formed in 2004.
Grossi toured with Quiet Riot
Quiet Riot
Quiet Riot is an American Heavy Metal band. They are best known for their hit singles "Metal Health" and "Cum On Feel the Noize". They were founded in 1973 by guitarist Randy Rhoads and bassist Kelly Garni, under the original name Mach 1, before changing the name to Little Women and finally Quiet...
throughout 2005,including the "Rock Never Stops tour
Rock Never Stops Tour
Rock Never Stops is a U.S. rock tour that features various rock groups of the 1980s and 1990s. The tour started in 1998 with L.A. Guns, FireHouse, Slaughter, Warrant and Quiet Riot. However, the line-up has changed through the years adding various bands of the genre.-Tour lineup:The tour's lineup...
" that featured CINDERELLA, RATT and FIREHOUSE, and returned in August 2006 after the departure of Neil Citron
Neil Citron
Neil Citron is a guitarist who played briefly with heavy metal band Quiet Riot in 2006. Although he contributes guitar to the album Rehab, he left shortly after the release and was replaced by Alex Grossi.He is also a sound engineer and mixer...
. Although Citron appears on the Quiet Riot album Rehab
Rehab (Quiet Riot album)
Rehab is the 11th album released from the heavy metal band Quiet Riot in 2006. It is their first studio release since 2001's Guilty Pleasures. The album is a departure from their "party-rock" past and offers a more mature sound...
, Grossi contributed songwriting on the songs "Free" and "Stange Daze" and joined in for this album's tour, which included feature slots at the 2007 Sweden Rock Festival as well as the first annual Rocklahoma Festival. Alex remained in the band until vocalist Kevin DuBrow's death. Quiet Riot disbanded in January 2008.
Alex has also played with such artists as Bang Tango
Bang Tango
Bang Tango is an American funk-infused hard rock and glam metal band.-Biography:The band formed in 1987 in Los Angeles, California and were signed to MCA Records that same year. The band's line-up has fluctuated since its inception, with the one mainstay of the group being frontman Joe Lesté...
, Steven Adler
Steven Adler
Steven Adler is an American musician. He is best known as the former drummer of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he achieved worldwide success in the late 1980s...
of Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band, formed in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, in 1985. The band has released six studio albums, three EPs, and one live album...
, Jani Lane
Jani Lane
Jani Lane , born John Kennedy Oswald, later changed to John Patrick Oswald, was an American recording artist and the lead vocalist, frontman, lyricist and main songwriter for the hard rock band Warrant....
of Warrant, (with whom he performed the Warrant classic "I saw Red" for VH1'S "METAL MANIA:STRIPPED ON THE STRIP DVD, Beautiful Creatures
Beautiful Creatures (band)
Beautiful Creatures are a hard rock band formed in 1999 by guitarist DJ Ashba, formerly of BulletBoys, and singer Joe Lesté of Bang Tango. The group's current lineup is composed of Lesté , Delta Starr , Anthony Focx , Lance Eric and Justin Sandler...
, Love/Hate
Love/Hate
Love/Hate is a Los Angeles, California based hard rock band who achieved their greatest fame in the early 90s.-1985-1988 unsigned:Love/Hate was formed in 1985 when Jizzy Pearl joined Jon E. Love, Skid Rose, and Joey Gold, in an '80s influenced electronica band called Dataclan, after their...
and Skid Row (U.S. band)
In 2008, Grossi put together the "DIZZY/JIZZY tour which featured Dizzy Reed
Dizzy Reed
Dizzy Reed is a contemporary rock musician, and occasional actor. He is best known for his tenure as the keyboardist & pianist for the rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he has played, toured and recorded since 1990...
's Hookers N' Blow and Jizzy Pearl
Jizzy Pearl
Jizzy Pearl is an Irish-American vocalist born on March 17, 1958, in Chicago, Illinois. He first fronted the rock band Data Clan, which became Love/Hate, and has also sung for L.A...
's Love/Hate
Love/Hate
Love/Hate is a Los Angeles, California based hard rock band who achieved their greatest fame in the early 90s.-1985-1988 unsigned:Love/Hate was formed in 1985 when Jizzy Pearl joined Jon E. Love, Skid Rose, and Joey Gold, in an '80s influenced electronica band called Dataclan, after their...
. In addition, Grossi contributed Guitar to Dizzy Reed's upcoming solo record, which is being produced by GN'R alumni Del James
Del James
Del James, is an American musician, writer, journalist and artist best known for writing the short story that reportedly inspired the "November Rain" video by hard rock band Guns N' Roses...
. No release date has yet been set.
In early 2009 Grossi signed on to tour with original Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band, formed in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, in 1985. The band has released six studio albums, three EPs, and one live album...
drummer Steven Adler
Steven Adler
Steven Adler is an American musician. He is best known as the former drummer of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he achieved worldwide success in the late 1980s...
following his stint on the hit VH1 series Sober House for a U.S. tour with his band Adler's Appetite
Adler's Appetite
Adler's Appetite, previously Suki Jones, is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 2003. As of 2011, the lineup consists of Patrick Stone , Michael Thomas , Lonnie Paul , Chip Z'nuff and Steven Adler...
.
Alex's music has also been used in multiple T.V. and motion pictures including the Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
produced film "The Smokers", the FX hit series Sons of Anarchy
Sons of Anarchy
Sons of Anarchy is an American television drama series created by Kurt Sutter about the lives of a close-knit outlaw motorcycle club operating in Charming, a fictional town in Northern California...
as well as the Walt Disney/Touchstone picture The Proposal
The Proposal (film)
The Proposal is a 2009 American romantic comedy film set in Sitka, Alaska. Directed by Anne Fletcher and written by Peter Chiarelli, the film features Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds as the leading roles, with Mary Steenburgen, Betty White, and Craig T. Nelson in supporting roles...
, He has also done several TV appearances including a 2003 documentary on the Rhode Island nightclub fire for the LIFETIME
Lifetime
Lifetime may refer to:*Life expectancy, the length of time a person is expected to remain alive*Mean lifetime, a certain number that characterizes the rate of reduction of a particle of an assembly...
network.
In 2009 Alex took part in the [PRS ROAD SHOW], put on by Paul Reed Smith
Paul Reed Smith
Paul Reed Smith , is a luthier and the founder and owner of PRS Guitars.Smith is originally from Bowie, Maryland. He made his first guitar while at St. Mary's College of Maryland, and continued to build guitars after he finished college, making them one at a time, one a month...
guitars (Alex has been an endorsee for 10 years and counting). Currently Alex and Adler's Appetite
Adler's Appetite
Adler's Appetite, previously Suki Jones, is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 2003. As of 2011, the lineup consists of Patrick Stone , Michael Thomas , Lonnie Paul , Chip Z'nuff and Steven Adler...
are laying the groundwork for a new record, as well as the release of Adler's first ever drum instructional DVD, which is set to be released in the fall/winter on 2009.
In 2010 Adler's Appetite
Adler's Appetite
Adler's Appetite, previously Suki Jones, is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 2003. As of 2011, the lineup consists of Patrick Stone , Michael Thomas , Lonnie Paul , Chip Z'nuff and Steven Adler...
debuted their first original material with the release of "Alive", a new single. The song was released in conjunction with Adler's New York Times Bestseller tell-all biography "My Appetite for Detstruction: Sex, Drugs and Guns N'Roses". The band also did a 50 city US tour in support of the release. On Sept. 13 2010 it was announced that Quiet Riot
Quiet Riot
Quiet Riot is an American Heavy Metal band. They are best known for their hit singles "Metal Health" and "Cum On Feel the Noize". They were founded in 1973 by guitarist Randy Rhoads and bassist Kelly Garni, under the original name Mach 1, before changing the name to Little Women and finally Quiet...
would be reforming with the line up consisting of Alex, Frankie Banali
Frankie Banali
Frankie Banali is an American rock drummer, best known for his work with multi-platinum heavy metal band Quiet Riot. He has been the band's manager during since 1994. He played drums in the heavy metal band W.A.S.P., as well as with Billy Idol...
, Chuck Wright
Chuck Wright
Chuck Wright is an American bassist, best known as the bassist of heavy metal band Quiet Riot. He originally joined Quiet Riot in 1982, performing bass on several tracks for their hit album, Metal Health, as well as contributing backing vocals. He left and rejoined Quiet Riot multiple times,...
and new vocalist Mark Huff.
In 2011 Alex formed Hotel Diablo with W.A.S.P.
W.A.S.P.
W.A.S.P. is an American heavy metal band formed in 1982. They emerged from the same Los Angeles scene that spawned Mötley Crüe, Ratt, Quiet Riot and others. The band's popularity peaked in the 1980s, yet they continue to record and tour, making them one of the most enduring of the West Coast heavy...
bassist and drummer Mike Duda and Mike Dupke
Mike Dupke
Mike Dupke is an American drummer who has played with bands W.A.S.P. and John Mellencamp.-Early years:As an undergraduate at Indiana University School of Music, he studied with drummer Kenny Aronoff...
and Adler's Appetite
Adler's Appetite
Adler's Appetite, previously Suki Jones, is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 2003. As of 2011, the lineup consists of Patrick Stone , Michael Thomas , Lonnie Paul , Chip Z'nuff and Steven Adler...
vocalist Rick Stitch
Rick Stitch
Rick Stitch is a Canadian singer-songwriter best known as the singer for both Ladyjack and Adler's Appetite.He has also played with First Born Unicorn, The Other Side of Morning and Steady Ground...
. The band entered the studio with former Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band, formed in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, in 1985. The band has released six studio albums, three EPs, and one live album...
and Rockstar Supernova guitarist Gilby Clarke
Gilby Clarke
Gilbert "Gilby" Clarke is an American guitarist and record producer best known for a 3-year tenure as the rhythm guitarist of Guns N' Roses, replacing Izzy Stradlin in 1991 during the Use Your Illusion Tour...
producing. They released the first tarck "Set it Off" via itunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
in July.The band played it's first show at the whisky a go go
Whisky a Go Go
The Whisky a Go Go is a nightclub in West Hollywood, California, United States. It is located at 8901 Sunset Boulevard, on the Sunset Strip.-History:...
in Hollywood on September, 2nd 2011 and is planning on releasing a full length album in 2012.
With Angry Salad
- The Guinea Pig EPThe Guinea Pig EPThe Guinea Pig EP is the first album released by the band Angry Salad. It was released in 1995 by Breaking World Records.-Track listing:# "Did I Hurt You?"# "Given Up"# "I Want You Back"# "My Town"# "So Little"# "Dance"# "Rico "...
(1995) - Bizarre Gardening AccidentBizarre Gardening AccidentBizarre Gardening Accident is the second album released by the band Angry Salad. It was released in 1997 by Breaking World Records.-Track listing:# "Empty Radio"# "Scared Of Highways"# "Stretch Armstrong"# "The Milkshake Song"# "Rico"...
(1997) - Angry SaladAngry Salad (album)Angry Salad is the third album released by the band Angry Salad. It was released in 1999 by Blackbird Records, a division of Atlantic Records.-Track listing:# "The Milkshake Song" # "How Does It Feel To Kill?" # "Rico"...
(1999)
With Adler's Appetite
- Alive - Single Release w/ My Appetite For Destruction (2010)
- Stardog - Single Release (2010)
- Fading - Single Release (2010)
Compilations
- It's So Easy: A Millennium Tribute to Guns N' Roses' (2006)
- Too Fast For Love: A Millennium Tribute to Mötley Crüe (2007)
- Whole Lotta Love: An All-Star Tribute to Fat Chicks (2010)
DVD Releases
- VH1 Metal Mania Stripped on The Strip: Volume 1 (2006)
- Getting Started with Rock Drumming featuring Steven Adler (2009)
- Sons of AnarchySons of AnarchySons of Anarchy is an American television drama series created by Kurt Sutter about the lives of a close-knit outlaw motorcycle club operating in Charming, a fictional town in Northern California...
season one (2009)