Who is Crazy John Kerecz?

By Justin Lutz

 

 

Crazy John has been on the Pennsylvania music scene for years interviewing for OSHRadio.com and numerous publications, so I decided to interview him for a change- sort of turn the tables on him. How and where I was going to interview him was kind of up in the air. I wanted to shadow him on one of his wild on the road show hopping adventures but that was going to be just too time consuming for my schedule and I didn't want to just take the easy way out of a phone interview, so a middle ground was found in interviewing him at his OSHRadio.com office and broadcast studio at the Facktory Sports & Entertainment Center in Liverpool Pa.  When asked why his office is in rural Liverpool, Crazy John replied " It's a great out of the way location for serious projects with few interruptions, and it combines two major themes in my life: sports and entertainment." He continued, "I have broadcast the live concerts they have had here and also the boxing events, as well as at times my weekly live Void show". The Void show is on a break and will be back when OSHRadio.com's sister station HBGRadio.net is revamped to an all-talk station.

 

The highlights of our interview at the OSHradio office follow:

 

Justin: So Crazy John what would you like to tell us about yourself?

 

CJ: Well I guess I would like to start at the beginning...it was a hot September 10 day and I remember lights and doctors and nurses and they said it's a boy!!

 

Justin: I think that's a little to far back, let’s try and stick to your being involved with music!

 

CJ: Ok, well when I was little I wanted to either be like Elvis or the Beatles. My Parents bought both my sister and I acoustic guitars, although my sister was the only one to be sent to lessons. She would then come home after her lessons and show me what she had learned and that was basically the start.

 

Justin: So that’s what got you started?

 

CJ: Yes, and from there I played the sousaphone in Junior High School, but I kind of put music on a back burner for sports, other than brief moments of learning some piano and the harmonica in early college.

 

Justin: Sousaphone!?

 

CJ: Yes, got roped into that, being one of the larger kids in school. One thing I did want to mention was I was a long-haired hippy when I was younger, before High School, and got into lots of fights, which lead to me taking Karate at an early age. This ties into all this, because after college I had owned and run some Karate studios, and that was what got my start, writing about not music but Martial Arts.  I use to write both press releases and articles for numerous national and international martial arts magazines. But after two retina operations and two lens replacements, contact sports are a thing of the past for me!  Also the first book that I was the co-author of was on martial arts. If you search my name on amazon.com you can learn more about this book and one of my others.

 

Justin: So what pulled you back to music?

 

CJ: Well to be honest, it was my son. Almost like what local Pennsylvania Singer Sherri Mullen told me about her son getting her into guitar when I interviewed them also happened to me. My son got interested and I started buying him guitars and equipment and it gave me the bug again, but I wanted to do something a little different and got myself a bass. This lead to me playing bass in a number of local bands, and today playing with my new music family 7th Layer, which now with a full four piece band behind them and has gone from a Hip Hop / Rap group to a Hip Hop cross over metal band. Being the oldest in the group I think I am the older big brother of this dysfunctional music family.

 

Justin: Ok, how did he you get involved with OSHRadio.com?

 

CJ: Well, I had first done cable radio back in the Lehigh Valley for a couple of years before moving to south central Pa to finish my engineering degree.  Then I was also involved with the college station during my undergraduate years but put in on the sideline while working on my Masters degree. Then years later, through HBGOnline.com, I saw OSHRadio was looking for new show ideas and people and I jumped on board. Little did I know down the road I would be handed the reins and left to run wild, or should I say crazy with it!!

 

Justin: For anyone who does not know you are the present owner and manager of the Internet Radio station OSHRadio.com.

 

CJ: Yes, which stands for Old School House Radio! Not because we play old school music, but because our original studio was in an old school house.  We actually support all kinds of independent artists and music from all over the world - something that is easy to do from the Internet.

 

Justin: and from there you branched out to writing about music and talking at seminars?

 

CJ: Yes, we had requests for people to go and speak about what we did with the live shows and playing independent music at OSHRadio.com and due to the busy schedule of the previous owner he asked me to go speak at one in Philly for him one time and the rest is history.

 

Justin: Why are you called Crazy John?

 

CJ: To be honest it comes from when I used to do sales in eastern Pa. There were these TV commercials for Crazy Eddies clothing stores and I just reminded the people I worked with of this character and I became Crazy John and it stuck. For a while I was also called "Ice Pick" because I used to do an ice pick through the arm demonstration at Karate events, every now and then I run into someone that remembers that and calls me that, but Crazy John was always the one that seemed to fit my weird quirky personality the best.

 

Justin: So what is in the future for Crazy John Kerecz?

 

CJ: I plan on trying to support independent music even more in the future with some new ideas for OSHRadio.com and also through covering the events and music through my interviews and writing.  I also have a side band music project I am planning that might surprise some people!

 

Justin: Thanks for taking the time to talk to us.

 

CJ: Thank you for asking, it does feel a little weird being on the other side of the interview!

 

Learn more about Crazy John Kerecz and OSHRadio.com at http://www.oshradio.com