November 2nd, 1963 • John Robin Anthony De Bellis born in Brooklyn, NY to Triphone "Nino" and Mary Jane De Bellis. Twenty days later, JFK is assassinated. Hang on, it's going to be a rough road ahead...
			1969 • For reason's unknown, John's parents take him to a Tom Jones show at the Copacabana in New York City. Only recollection is that dinner was chicken parmesan and a lotta keys and underwear were thrown on the stage.
			Summer 1970 • Life changing event: John attends his first New York Mets baseball game with his father and immediately becomes an impassioned NY Met fan. Mets lose. Living in a city where the NY Yankess are all the rage, John just seems to like making things tougher on himself.
			September 1971 • The DeBellis household, now numbering five including older brother Robert and younger sister Janine, packs up the truck and moves out to the untamed wilderness of Wantagh, Long Island (though it's really only the suburbs about a half hour away.) For the first time, John is called "City Kid".
			1973 • First musical experience. After years of listening to his parents' record collection of Italian singers and 50's hits, Johs beg them to buy a five record collection of 1950s songs advertised on TV. Repeated listenings ensue.
			1976 • Older brother teaches me "The Hustle" (the dance, not the vocation.) Also starts listening to his Led Zeppelin, Elton John and disco records, then buys first record, Boston's eponymous debut.
			1978 • The Beatles become John's new obsession, prompting Mama De Bellis to ask, "Why are you listening to that drug music?!?"
			1977-1979 • Parents buy John an acoustic guitar, but formal lessons never quite take off. A subsequent try on drums never gets past the practice pad.
			1979 • Sees Beatlemania at the Lunt-Fontaine Theater in NYC. Lotsa hanging out in Central Park. Hear s"Rapper's Delight" for the first time.
			1981 • Graduates from Wantagh High School.
			1981-1982 • Drops in and out of college two or three times. Or maybe it was four ...
			1981 • See this guy playing a Fender Bass in a local Long Island band and it was, like, "I got to get me one!" Instead, buys a cheap electric six string guitar, plugs into home stereo and tries to play along to Moody Blues records.
			1981 • Attends first rock concert, Ozzy Osborne's first solo tour. Though not a hard rocker, John will now be forever doomed to having metalheads exclaim "YOU got to see Randy Rhoads?!?!?"
			1983 • With the help of a coworker, John buy a Fender Mustang Bass, which his still has. Starts dating future wife Laura, also still in his possession.
			1983-89 • John starts playing bass with various local rock and blues groups on Long Island and Greenwich Village, cutting his teeth on artists the likes of Muddy Waters, The Beatles, plus lotsa early rock-n-roll stuff. One local Long Island pop band he plays with, Desperate Moves wins the MTV Basement Tapes with a song called "College Radio" and they win a Budweiser guitar. Surely, rock stardom is just around the corner...
			1984 • Gets a job with American Airlines at JFK airport and he's still working for them to this day. A coworker of Jamaican decent turns John onto his first John Coltrane record and his mind is suitably blown.
			1986 • Laura and John get married. Again, minds are blown.
			1987 • As a birthday gift, Laura buys her hubby a '62 reissue Fender Precision Bass in James Jamerson sunburst-and-tortishell which remains his main workhorse to this day (the bass, not the wife.)
			1989 • John and wife relocate with American Airlines to the Tampa Bay area. John starts playing in local area bands, most notably the R&B/Motown group "Filet of Soul". He also purchases an upright acoustic bass at Augustino's music shop in Clearwater. John starts to learn jazz and rockabilly slap bass and then sets to jam with local jazz groups.
			1996-98 • Meets Andy Beer and Ronnie Dee and plays gigs with Joey Dee and the Starlighters of "Peppermint Twist" fame. With Andy Beer and Dave Martin forms the funk/R&B group Cold Sweat.
			1993-2001 • In measured succession, John and Laura have three children, Cassandra, Olivia and Johnny.
			1999-2001 • John and friends start a jazz/swing trio called Doctomdas, gigging at local cigar bars and coffeehouses. John then joins a rockabilly group The Evil Levis and finds out the hard way it's real hard to get a rockabilly gig. However, he continues to "slap that bass".
			2002-present • At a local open mike night held at a microbrewery, John decides to haul out his upright bass and meets Mark Warren and Ken Walker of the Vodkanauts, who as luck would have it, are in the market for a bass player. Jams follow and they hit it off musical. John then joins up with the Vodkanauts, weathering years of lineup changes and stylistic diversions.