Rocco DeLuca

Rocco DeLuca delivers a contemporary spin on blues-rock that blends Beck’s easy command of multiple styles, stripped of ironic detachment, with the raw energy of Jon Spencer Blues Explosion yet grounded in a deeper historical awareness. Born in Southern California in 1976, he maintains that his upbringing unfolded primarily on the R&B touring circuit as the son of a single father who served as one of Bo Diddley’s backing guitarists. Immersed in the blues through both tour-bus exposure and living-room jam sessions at home, he took up the guitar early and later adopted the Dobro—a resonating metal-top guitar central to Delta blues prior to amplification—as his main instrument.

After years of sustaining the itinerant pattern established in childhood, he returned to Los Angeles and launched a weekly residency at the Gypsy Lounge, a prominent blues and country venue in Orange County. While supporting artists such as Taj Mahal, he drew the interest of an A&R executive from Ironworks Records, the fledgling independent imprint founded by ’80s pop singer Jude Cole and actor Kiefer Sutherland; in 2004 he became the label’s inaugural signee. During recording of his debut album, produced by Cole, the pair assembled a permanent backing unit for his vocals and Dobro comprising bassist Dave Beste, percussionist Gary Velasquez, and drummer Ryan Carman. The resulting record, I Trust You to Kill Me, appeared in March 2006 alongside a same-titled DVD documentary that documented Sutherland guiding Rocco DeLuca & the Burden through their initial international press trek.