"Junkies and Thieves" Songwriter/Lead Guitarist Chris Eaton learned 3 guitar chords from a buddy back in the Bronx at age 13, then was thrown onstage two weeks later at Manny's Carwash Blues in Manhattan and told, "Either go up and play some blues or I'm leavin' you in the city."
"EATON: "I was scared shitless and sucked at 12 bar blues all night,
but played my ass off anyways"
Five years later Eaton was playing and touring with some of NY's best cover and original bands (opening for Tesla, Gilby Clark, et al). Meanwhile back in Colorado... Lead Man/Lyricist Jason Race was busy singing at local bars, chasing jail-bait, and dreaming of meeting someone like Chris Eaton (EATON MODESTLY SAYS)! Cut to late 2004 in San Diego. Eaton met Race in a now defunct local band, jumped in as lead guitar to check out the local scene, and basically stole the front guy.
RACE: I took one look at Chris and thought, 'Now there a big
heavy metal lookin mutha, but man can that dude wail.
EATON: "Best thing about J is he can be thrown outside with a napkin, pencil, cig, and some raw music, and come skulking back
in 20 minutes with the perfect melody line and lyrics.
Perhaps Eaton's refusal to revitalize what he calls "Mediocre 2-Chord Pussy Rock" accelerated the emergence of Junkies and Thieves... with a vengeance!! Junkies hit the San Diego music scene New Years Eve 2004 after only two weeks of hard-core practice. Even the first 6 shows were played to full houses of rock-starved fans, despite California's record onslaught of rain waiting for show nights to cut loose. "If it wasn't rainin', we weren't playin", thus the name of their first EP released Mid 2005.
"If It Ain't Rainin".
THE BEST PART: "We love it when fans run up after a show and say...
'THIS is THE BAND man... finally some real ROCK N ROLL!'"
Junkies and Thieves brought down the house Nov 9, 2006 as the opening act at the 16th Annual LA MUSIC AWARDS, bringing home awards for 2006 ROCK EP OF THE YEAR and 2006 ROCK COMPOSER OF THE YEAR. JNT'S currently busy finishing up a full length CD, lovingly called SUNDAY NIGHT HOOKERS, looking forward to telling the story of the title, and planning for a reality show to start filming Mid 2007!
MOST KICK-ASS JUNKIES SONG
