A decade together - kind of

Well, I can hardly believe we're in 2018, but that's an exciting landmark for The Staylyns. This year marks a decade since we started making music together...okay, not the whole band, but at least 2/3 of The Staylyns...and not AS The Staylyns. Okay, so it was a decade ago that the groundwork was laid for The Staylyns!

Here's the story. In 2008, Johnny was in a band called Leatherhand with two of his brothers.

Leatherhand had been active on the Austin scene for several years, but the band was starting to fracture, as bands often do. Years of arguing about drinking, drugs, the band's direction, the band's power dynamic, etc. was taking its toll, but they still believed something great could happen.

They were all living together in a little compound in East Austin, and Johnny had started dating Suzy a few months before, and everything felt like it was at a crossroads. The band discussed moving to Las Vegas to shake things up, and Suzy was pulling Johnny in the opposite direction and asking him to get more serious about their relationship in Austin. Johnny had a decision to make. He made the wrong one.

Well, no, not THAT wrong.

Johnny ditched Suzy and made a renewed push with the band. That lasted just over a month. One night, after a gig and several hours of drinking and debauchery, the band had one final implosion when Johnny found himself locked out of his own house on a cold night, sleeping in his van because his brothers had locked him out and passed out inside. That was it. He was done. He called Suzy.

Johnny started a solo project, Johnny Austin. He started adding band members, and within a couple of months, Suzy joined the band. The rest, as they say, is history.

It would be February 2009 before Joe joined the band, and we rebranded as The Staylyns in 2011, but it was 2008 when the magic began. We can't wait to see what the next 10 years brings!