Johnny Bacolas

His father, George Bacolas (1932-2005), was born in Athens, Greece, and worked as a restaurateur, owning several different restaurants throughout his lifetime.

Bacolas has stated that his love for music was sparked when his father George brought home various vinyl records that he rotated from the jukeboxes at his restaurants once they ran their course in the Top 40, citing Elton John, Barry Manilow, and old Motown as some of his earliest influences.

He started playing guitar at the age of 12.

Soon after, he formed his first band with childhood friend and drummer, James Bergstrom.

Johnny Bacolas (Greek: Γιάννης Μπάkολας; classical transcription Yiannis Bacolas) (born March 3, 1969) is an American musician, composer and producer.

He is best known for his work with the post-grunge band Second Coming, where he played bass guitar.

He was also a founding member of the band Sleze, which was later renamed Alice N' Chains (a precursor to Alice in Chains that also featured vocalist Layne Staley), The Crying Spell, Lotus Crush, and The Rumba Kings.

Johnny Bacolas is a first-generation American born to Greek parents who met at St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Seattle, Washington.

His mother, Patricia Bacolas, was born in Lamia, Greece, and works as an artist from her home in Kirkland, Washington.

Bacolas has cited a myriad of musical styles (particularly from the 1970s) and artists, such as Black Sabbath, Pet Shop Boys, and Gipsy Kings, as some of his other influences.

In 1984, Bacolas started a garage band called Sleze along with James Bergstrom and two other Shorewood High students, Zoli Semanate and Byron Hansen.

At the suggestion of Bergstrom's friend Ken Elmer, they recruited Elmer's stepbrother Layne Staley, who back then also went by the surname Elmer, as vocalist.

In 1985, Sleze began performing live at various high schools with Bacolas on guitar.

They mostly played Slayer and Armored Saint covers.

"The first song we jammed was, "L.o.v.e. Machine" by Wasp. Then we did an Armored Saint song, a Mötley Crüe song, and after doing a few songs together, that was the band."

says Bacolas in Grunge is Dead: An Oral History of Seattle Music by Greg Prato.

In a 1985 airing of the television program, Town Meeting, featured on KOMO 4 Seattle, Staley and Bacolas appear on the show to protest censorship from the PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center).

Staley and Bacolas were in attendance in the studio audience (Bacolas sitting on Staley's right).

Frank Zappa was the guest speaker opposing the PMRC.

At one point during the program, the host gives Staley an opportunity to speak into the microphone, and Staley makes the following statement, directed to one of the co-founders of the PMRC, and guest speaker on the program, Sally Nevius, "I play for a rock band called Sleze, and there's enough controversy on our name, more or less than our songs. We just signed with a local record company. I don't feel there's anything objectionable about any of our songs, but I don't feel anyone anyone else has the right to rate our songs I mean, I'm the only one that has the right to rate my album, you don't have it."

Sleze went through several lineup changes before they eventually changed their name to Alice N' Chains.

At one point, Bacolas briefly left the group to jam with another band called Ascendant, where he took up playing bass guitar.

By the time he rejoined Sleze, the band had already written what would eventually be recorded on the two demos they put out under the moniker Alice N' Chains.

The group continued to perform throughout the Seattle area before they broke up around 1987, which was the year that Bacolas graduated from Shorewood High.

A few months after Alice N' Chains broke up, Layne Staley joined the glam metal band that eventually took the name Alice in Chains, which Bacolas later claimed was the name that the two of them along with the other members of Sleze had initially flirted with.

Throughout the rest of his career, Staley continued to stay in touch with Bacolas and the two of them shared an apartment during the mid-1990s.

Meanwhile, Bacolas continued working with James Bergstrom, and in May 1993, they formed a band called Second Coming.

In 1994, they independently released their debut album L.O.V.Evil, which features a guest appearance by Layne Staley on the track "It's Coming After".

The band, along with special guest, Layne Staley, performed at its CD release party for L.O.V.Evil on September 9, 1994, at The Fenix Underground in Seattle, Washington.

In 1995, Bacolas and Staley became roommates after Staley asked Bacolas to move in with at his home located in the Queen Anne area of Seattle.

During this time, Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready was forming the group Mad Season, and would regularly contact Bacolas to ask if he could come over to their home to talk to Staley about singing on the band's upcoming album.

Bacolas would oblige and allow McCready into the home to wait for Staley to wake-up.

In Greg Prato's book, Grunge is Dead, The Oral History of Seattle Music, Bacolas states that once Staley would wake-up, McCready would then play song ideas to Staley on a guitar, and Staley would be impressed.

Staley subsequently agreed to record on Mad Season's record, Above.

Staley arranged for Bacolas' band, Second Coming, to open for Mad Season at Seattle nightclub RKCNDY on New Year's Eve of 1995.

Staley performed several shows with Second Coming while roommates with Bacolas.

Bacolas was also performing in a band called FTA, which was the same band as Second Coming, but played cover songs on the outskirts of Seattle.

Bacolas recalls Staley showing up to the band's shows, alongside Bacolas' father, George Bacolas, and would perform songs like "Would" and "Man in the Box" with the band, to the delight of the audience in attendance.

"We were just blown away by him," remembered lead guitarist Johnny Bacolas in Greg Prato's 2009 chronicle Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music.

"He had 'star qualities' even then. He was much more timid – he looked down while he sang, but the grain of his voice was there, the soul was there."