While making his new record, Danny Rocco blew out two discs in his spine and lost the use of his right leg. A showman with Freddie Mercury in his heart and Bruce Springsteen in his work ethic, he wasn’t deterred.
“I almost died several times, proverbially and physically,” the New Yorker says. “There’s a fine line between that initial burst of creativity and magic, and then putting in the hours to refine stuff over a long period of time and just being like: ‘Not good enough, not good enough…’ I wrote about fifty songs for this record.”
That’s Rocco all over: a guy who knew in the second grade that he wanted to be a rocker and never stopped grinding for it. It all comes out in To Hell And Back’s hard-edged guitar crunch, commanding melodies and Queen-via-Jack White vocals, all of it recorded live to raw, emphatic effect. There are pop, industrial, alt. and blues flavours, but it’s all rock.
Born in Long Island, NY, Rocco discovered rock’n’roll alone. “When I wasn’t getting my ass kicked by my older brothers, I was off on my own adventures,” he explains, “taking the train to the city, going to music stores, going to shows. I was left alone in a way that ended up being very positive.”
During this time he ingested Muse, Elvis Presley, Alanis Morissette, Nine Inch Nails, Britney Spears – voices that all left a mark. By 12, he was playing guitar in bands, doing shows in rec centres, churches, synagogues, backyards and dive bars in Queens and Long Island.
“I’ve seen scenes come and go in the New York area, and man, have I not been a part of them!” he laughs. “Especially on these emo bills in, like, 2007, 2008, and I’m playing like I’m Bruce Springsteen or Freddie Mercury in front of eighty thousand people – and it’s just crickets, night after night.”
In time he drove across the country in vans, playing to “eight or nine people”. Meanwhile he worked as a cabana boy, guitar teacher, golf caddy and more to pay the bills. He was even an attorney for three years. “I hate the idea that artists should be ignorant, or that rock’n’roll needs to be some drug-driven death cult. I just think it’s all about being, without shame, who you really are.”
Everything changed when the singer in his previous band fell ill with Lyme disease, and they had to call time in 2018. Overnight, Rocco was dropped by his label, manager and agent. It gave him a clean slate to make music on his terms, becoming a frontman out of necessity.
Since then, he’s played tiny basements in Alabama, clubs across Europe and packed stadiums with the Rolling Stones. None of which he takes for granted. “The excitement about playing bigger shows will never go. I will be eighty years old on a stage, and the only emotion I will have is gratitude.”
To Hell And Back is out now via Sumerian. Des Rocs’ European tour kicks off in Manchester in October. For dates and ticket links, visit the Des Rocs website.