Born in Yonkers NY, educated in catholic schools, ( Regis H.S., Manhattan College) ... in 1960 John Sweeney founded and trained the popular Eastchester-based group, "The Knight Riders" , whose other alumnus and junior member , Billy Vera, wrote the world's top karaoke song. After working with the Earls at the Peppermint Lounge, the multiracial Richard Levister trio and entertaining troops on USO tours to Bermuda, & Greenland with piano great Nick Oliva and comedy master Lenny Rush ( then Lenny Wayne), developing and perfecting a dynamic black-influenced style later to become known as "Blue Eyed Soul", After working such NYC "in crowd" spots as The Metropole & Trude Heller's with saxophone legend David Gross, Sweeney did an army stint in Oklahoma, where he gigged with Roger Tillotson , Jesse Ed Davis, and Blues great Little Johnny Taylor, as well as doing what he does best--founding & training a fine show band called "The Greensleeves" with Tulsa legends Don Duca, Bobby Villareal, Larry Hall, Dale Hawkins, & of course, Dann Yankee of Carpetbaggers fame, before returning to NYC in 1967, to join the Pilgrims, an officially sanctioned Young Rascals clone group, (his drummer was married to Dino Danelli's sister). Seeking more mainstream musical challenges, Sweeney joined the very tall horn band Big River with Saturday Night Live bassist Tom Wolk, was briefly sought by the young Steve Tallarico to join what eventually became Aerosmith (but refused), travelled to L.A. under Larry Larsen's and Lee Weisel's tutelage as an Iron Butterfly opening act, jammed with Butterfly's Lee Dorman , with Buddy Miles, & with Eric Burdon's War, worked the Whisky a Go Go & other LA clubs, and returned to NYC in 1971 to play free jazz with the Jon Weiss trio & form a blues-based avante power trio with superdrummer Jimmy Strassburg & legendary uber-guitarist Link Chamberland,... With the help of jazz/fusion bigs Miles Davis,& Tony Williams, Sweeney founded & trained Eyes Wise & Lightning with Mike Cavallo, Ronny Hinds & John Schelz, and simultaneously pursued a solo singer-songwriter path, which led to the "Throw a Penny to the Minstrel" effort, with Joe Droukas' band, in 1975. Sweeney has been employed as a 3D computer modelling designer in recent years, penning several hundred original songs over the 1980's & 1990's, in a studio which he built in his home in the Hudson Valley of New York State. We can only hope all the great music this man possesses will be released to us in the near future. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.