Johnny Colla

John Victor Colla (born 1952) is an American musician (playing the guitar and saxophone), singer and songwriter. He is a founding member of the American rock band Huey Lewis and the News. He has been heavily involved in the San Francisco Bay Area music scene for decades, having been in several other bands, including Rubicon, Sly and the Family Stone, Van Morrison, Sound Hole, and Johnny Colla & The Lucky Devils. Colla has two children, Allison Colla and Ryan Colla.

The first bands that Colla was involved with from Fairfield, California, were The Furlanders, The Yewess Army and Cottonmouth. In the early 1970s, he moved to Marin County, California and joined Sound Hole as a singer and saxophonist. Sound Hole was successful at a local level and became Van Morrison's backing band for a time. Other members of Sound Hole were drummer Bill Gibson and bassist Mario Cipollina, who also eventually joined with Huey and The News. Sound Hole was the major local competition to Huey's band Clover. After Sound Hole, Colla was enlisted as sax man/arranger with Sly and the Family Stone, recording and touring with Sly for a few years. In the late 1970s, Sound Hole and Clover alumni merged to form a new group, the American Express, which later became known as Huey Lewis and the News. For the News, Colla became saxophonist, rhythm guitarist, backing singer and songwriter.

Colla was drawn to San Francisco from the Sacramento Valley during the 1960s Summer of Love. Like many others, Colla patronized the Avalon Ballroom and the Fillmore Auditorium.

Colla co-wrote hit songs such as "The Heart of Rock & Roll", "If This Is It", "The Power of Love", and "Back in Time". Lewis and Colla co-produced the band's albums Plan B (2001) and Weather (2020).

Colla embarked upon a solo career, releasing his first solo album Lucky Devil in the mid 1990s. He released his second solo album, I Hear Voices, in 2012, which takes a more vocal approach than Lucky Devil.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.