We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Joe Vitale Jr a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Joe, appreciate you joining us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

I grew up in a mid west town in Canton, Ohio and I have two wonderful loving parents. They raised me to have a strong work ethic, to always do my best, to be a good fair & honest person and most of all, I grew up in Christian household and was taught all about God & Jesus Christ. He is my Lord & Savior & truly I wouldn’t be here today still going strong if it wasn’t for my faith.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Joe Vitale Jr and I’m the son of veteran rock drummer Joe Vitale from (Joe Walsh, The Eagles, Crosby Stills & Nash, Buffalo Springfield, Peter Frampton, Dan Fogelberg & many others.)

When I was young I wanted to be an astronaut like all young men but when I was 10 years old I had an opportunity that changed my life and career trajectory. My dad was out on tour with Crosby Stills & Nash playing drums and when they were playing at Blossom Music Center in 1987, they asked me if I wanted to come out and play tambourine on their song, “Teach Your Children”. I, being a ham at that age, dove at the chance and came out on stage and played tambourine in front of 19,000 fans. the roar of the crowd and rush were incredible and it was at this moment I knew what I wanted to do with my life and that was to be a professional musician.

In subsequent years I learned to play many instruments, though drums have always been my primary instrument. I also learned to write and record my own songs. When I was 16 I had an opportunity to perform with Joe Walsh because the keyboard player couldn’t make the show. My dad moved over to keys and Joe Walsh pointed at me and said “you’re on drums tonight”. It was an awesome night too! I also performed with the Stephen Stills Blues Band, Crosby Stills & Nash as well as drums with Donnie Iris & the Cruisers.

I have worked as an audio engineer for Stephen Stills on several of his albums & the Jimi Hendrix Foundation on unreleased Jimi Hendrix material with Stephen Stills and have released several albums of my own. At present I am the leader of my personal rock band called Ravenwood and we are touring & promoting our most recent album.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

In my industry you need to have a serious backbone when it comes to criticism. Sometimes you can use criticism as a tool to help make your band better but overall, you have to let things slide off your back. You can’t dwell on how one person or even a group of people don’t like your sound. Yes it hurts but you truly can’t please everyone and music is subjective and not everyone will hear it the same way. You have to not pay it attention when you get bad reviews or opinions and move forward.

Something to remember is, we all have bad nights here and there and you have to look at what you can do to make it better and press forward knowing the next one will be better or if the problem does persist, what you can do to fix it even if you have to go in a different direction. The point is don’t let the opinion of others destroy you as an artist. Keep moving forward no matter what anyone says.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

There are always going to be points in the timeline of your career you may need to make an adjustment. This can be in personnel, sound of your music, management, booking agents, touring options, etc. You sometimes may need to take a step backwards for a moment & rethink the direction forward. It can be tough and overwhelming but you have to know when something isn’t working or isn’t working to maximum capacity or efficiency.

An example of this can be if you are an artist and you have a band and it just isn’t gelling as a whole or certain individuals are arguing. You may need to think about changing band members to restore harmony as it were to the band. Egos will always be part of this industry but you have to be professional about things. Sometimes you may need to start from scratch, though this is usually the last option.

In the course of my career, I have had to change out band members, managers, booking agents, etc. It can be very difficult and hard to do because bands are like a family. But the thing to truly remember is this. You are a band and a band is a business, period. If the band collapses, your business collapses.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.joevitalejr.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/joevitalejrofficial
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/joevitalejrofficial
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/joe-vitale-jr-36449ba
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/joevitalejr
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/joevitalejrofficial

Image Credits
Forshee Media, John C Benson & What’s Up Ohio