• Bassist Justin Smolian is the band’s prized "California native.”
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• Raised in Van Nuys, Justin’s father, Peter Smolian, who worked in the film business, owned a sound effects/ Foley ADR studio for 25 years. Some of the films that Justin’s father worked on were “Purple Rain,” the original “Tron,” “Jumping Jack Flash,” “Back to the Future,” “Nightmare on Elm Street" 3 & 4, and the remake of “Little Rascals."
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• A native upstate New Yorker, vocalist Marc LaBelle headed out to L.A. to “find his fortune,” spending the initial months crashing on friends’ couches and front porches, until that dried up. He spent the next six months homeless, living/sleeping in his car, parking in Westwood neighborhoods - figuring the security would be good there, so he’d be safe. With a membership at a local West L.A. gym, he was able to work out and shower, and then head to his day-job at a production company where he was a location scout for a programs like “Sons of Anarchy,” “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia," “New Girl.”
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• All band members currently live in Los Angeles.
A few pretty impressive successes, especially from a totally independent band with no ties to a major label.
• The band’s 2019 debut single, “When I’m Gone,” made record biz history when it went all the way to #1 on Billboard’s Mainstream and Hard Rock Charts, making the band the first and still only unsigned artist to achieve that.
• The band’s second single, “Rollin’ 7s,” went to #3 at BDS before being thwarted by COVID; the companion music video has racked up more than 10M views.
• To date, and on Spotify alone, Dirty Honey has racked up more than 55-million total streams.
• With no label support, Dirty Honey’s 2021 self-titled debut album entered Billboard's Hard Rock Album chart
at #2.
• Rolling Stone named them an “Artist You Need To Know."
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• The band sold-out its first two U.S. headline club tours (and averaged $8000 a night in merch sales); as main support on The Black Crowes’ nine-week summer 2021 U.S. tour, they received standing ovations on most dates, and merch sales averaging $15,000 a night. Not bad for a then still-breaking, opening act.
• Dirty Honey has toured the UK and Europe three times in the past year - the first was supporting Guns N’ Roses, KISS, and Rival Sons, and then early this year, two headline tours, with every date not just sold out, but with local promoters moving the shows to bigger venues due to ticket demand. The band will launch its 2023-24 North American headline tour this fall, preceeded by a handful of festival dates and Guns N Roses shows in August & September.