Heaven and Earth Band

Heaven & Earth was formed in the early 90's by British guitar virtuoso Stuart Smith. Smith did not come up through the typical rock ‘n roll ranks of his contemporaries. The British-born guitarist was initially compelled to follow his father into the Royal Air Force as a jet pilot. But then someone gave him guitar and someone else took him to a Deep Purple concert, and his plans were significantly altered. In an unprecedented manner, Smith was not restricted to simply being a “fan” of Deep Purple; he actually befriended them and was soon being personally mentored by the one and only Ritchie Blackmore.

During the 70s, Smith bent strings with numerous groups before forming Sidewinder, who toured extensively throughout Europe. That was as far as it went. Then in 1983, at the urging of Blackmore, Smith relocated to New York for riper opportunities. After three years gigging around Long Island, the guitarist headed west to Los Angeles where he aligned himself with a fraternity of local and British musicians, including Keith Emerson and Sweet. It was when Smith was with Sweet that the seeds for Heaven & Earth were planted.

In 1999, Smith recruited friends like guitarist Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi), singer Joe Lynn Turner (Rainbow), bassist and singer Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple), drummer Camine Appice (Vanilla Fudge), guitarist Howard Leese (Heart), singer Kelly Hansen (Foreigner), bassist Chuck Wright (Quiet Riot) and drummer Richie Onari (Sweet) to record the critically acclaimed Stuart Smith’s Heaven & Earth. Subsequent Heaven & Earth releases Windows to the World, featuring former Blue Murder vocalist Kelly Keeling, and an EP A Taste of Heaven, helped to advance Smith’s musical vision.

After putting Heaven & Earth on hiatus for a while he reformed Sweet with original bass player Steve Priest and toured extensively with the band till a chance meeting with multimillionaire Bruce Quarto led to Quarto forming his own record company Quarto Valley Records whose first signing was Heaven & Earth. Smith brought in singer Joe Retta and drummer Richie Onori and they were joined by Quiet Riot bassist Chuck Wright and keyboard player Arlan Schierbaum and proceeded to release the critically acclaimed album "Dig" which was released in 2013. Smith and Retta then brought in Bad Company bassist Lynn Sorensen, drummer Jackie Barnes and keyboard player Ty Bailie and they toured Europe to rave reviews.

After the tour Bruce Quarto decided to press on with the band and they spent the next two years recording "Hard to Kill" with legendary drummer Kenny Aronoff which was released in September 2017. The band is now getting ready to tour to support the album with the addition of drummer Steve Wilson and keyboardist Mike Mangan.