At the age of 8, while at a family trip to the Indiana State Fair in his hometown of Indianapolis, Rich Grillo and his family stopped at a burger shop across from the fairground’s music stadium. Shortly after sitting down, a huge, wonderful sound came from the stadium… KC and the Sunshine Band were performing. That day changed Rich’s life forever. Hearing such a huge sound and realizing what it did for him and for the people watching the show, he discovered the power of music.
Around age 12, he received a bass guitar for his birthday and started taking lessons. Within a year he was asked to join his first band with his brother who had already been playing guitar for a couple years. All through high school, he played in several bands that performed at the local under 21 clubs, the county fair, school talent shows, and winning local "battle of the bands".
At 17, he joined his first bar band which started his professional career. From there he played in bands working everything from local bars to a stint touring Holiday Inn hotels. Feeling there were bigger things out there, he switched to playing all originals. The original scene gained him notice as a bassist in the Indianapolis area. The hard rock band, Felony, received interest from major record labels, but the band was not able to progress the interest any further. After Felony disbanded due to frustration, he formed a new band, Charger, which played around the Midwest and won Rich a nomination as best bassist in the local Indianapolis music scene magazine.
While in Charger, Rich was approached by local guitar hero Claude Brissart whose band, “Brissart” was playing originals, but also making good money playing cover songs. Tired of playing for beer, Rich left Charger and joined Brissart. Brissart quickly became very popular around the Midwest, routinely playing to crowds of 1500 to 2000 people and opening for such national acts as Joan Jett, and Yngwie Malmsteen.
During Brissart, Rich started an alternate career as a computer programmer, which became very lucrative. In 1997, his computer job offered him the opportunity to move to Atlanta. The chance to move to a larger city was too exciting and the move quickly took place.
While developing software, Rich continued his music career in Atlanta playing with acts such as Sonia Leigh, Godzilla Does Dallas, Kudzukazi, Mike Watson, and many others. At the same time, Rich pursued another musical aspiration; he started a recording studio keenly named, Richenroll Studios. Richenroll grew steadily as one of the Atlanta area’s premier, yet affordable recording studios; and recorded local and national acts such as Jungol, , No Longer Mica, Sonia Leigh, Andrew Black, Von Grey, Nine Times Blues, Len Rosen and the Tribe of Good Fortune, child Country music prodigy Krista Nick, and many others.
In 2010, Rich made another life decision and decided to concentrate all of his effort on playing bass. He packed up everything he owned and used some savings and moved to the Tampa, Florida area. This moved proved positive as he quickly created a name for himself around the area. He currently plays with many of the top talents in the area, works steadily with the popular rock/country/soul band, Protocol, and relaxes in the sun and on the beaches.
