Backstage questions
June 28, 2019
You ask ’em, I’ll get them answered! “I know you had Kevin Costner at The Arcada. What does he do and what kind of a guy is he?” — Tina B., Carol Stream Kevin Costner has a country band called…
June 28, 2019
You ask ’em, I’ll get them answered! “I know you had Kevin Costner at The Arcada. What does he do and what kind of a guy is he?” — Tina B., Carol Stream Kevin Costner has a country band called…
June 21, 2019
Growing up in an Italian American household in the ’60s and ’70s, aside from Frank, Dean and Tony, the guys who kept our record players spinning were Frankie Avalon, Fabian, James Darren and Bobby Rydell. And as I have worked…
June 17, 2019
Each year, for the past 26, I have produced a festival in Chicago’s Little Tuscany neighborhood around 24th Street and Oakley Avenue. It’s called Festa Pasta Vino and it showcases the Italian restaurants on the block and their generations-old recipes,…
March 30, 2018
It’s no secret I loooooooove my rock ‘n’ roll! Being a kid of the early Seventies, I was exposed to that great classic rock of the time, from Led Zeppelin to Lynyrd Skynyrd, and classic pop of Elton John to…
March 23, 2018
I have produced shows for almost 40 years now. And even though there is no doubt I am a classic rocker by virtue of my high school years in the 70s, the street-corner music of the East Coast from the…
March 15, 2018
When I think of the greatest voices in rock ‘n’ roll, many come to mind. I think if I were to “personify” an official voice of rock, it would probably be Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin. My other favorites include…
March 9, 2018
The “classic rock” world received stunning news this week: Chicago classic rock radio station WLUP was sold to a Christian broadcasting company and will be reformatted. This comes after 41 years of Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, Stones, AC/DC and Guns ‘N…
March 2, 2018
When I think of the Beatles, what automatically comes to mind is the black-and-white Beatles’ performances on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” four stiff-legged, sharply pressed, mopped-topped teenagers who looked as frightened of the audience as they were surprised by the…
February 23, 2018
I have always loved music … all kinds of music. People today know me pretty much as a rocker, but there was a fleeting moment when I was almost forced to “pick a team” — disco or rock. It was…
February 16, 2018
My “Backstage with Ron Onesti” column has featured more than 100 “behind-the-scenes” experiences with celebs, entertainers and rock stars. Each week, I talk about the ways I have been fortunate enough to connect with these icons of the showbiz world….
February 9, 2018
It has been 12 years since I arrived in St. Charles, hoping to keep the Arcada Theatre alive. During that time, I am proud to say we have taken this historic, yet physically-challenged, building and turned it into one of…
February 2, 2018
Growing up in an Italian-American household, we celebrated two sacred “Trinities.” One was “The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit,” the other was “Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Tony Bennett.” It seems their music was always playing somewhere in…