The guys from Velvet Dog have known each other for years. They've been in and out, up and down. They've been jailed, imprisoned, addicted, rocked out and well known. These guys grew up when Rock n Roll was DECADENT and refuse to deny the spirit of RnR! The souls have been sold...

Velvet Dog (V. D.) is now Spreading The Disease (S.T.D.) of Rock n Roll! Until you're infected you have no idea what these guys are bringing to the table. Gutter, Glam, Metal, Rock n Roll with twisted lyrics of addiction, abuse, denial, rebellion, refusal and of course the climactic SEX, DRUGS, and ROCK N' ROLL!!!

Velvet Dog was formed after the previous formation of Leno & Taj being Father Hate Flesh (LLC) with old singer Rose (Joe Riositti, RIP 2007) had separated and gone on their own ways until Rose died. The funeral was a long awaited phone call between Leno and Taj.

Taj was already involved with Rock at the time, who also had known Rose. He quickly called to pass the news and the time and date of the funeral. They showed up together and ended up having drinks with Leno, GIN of course, in Roses' name. They talked about bring Father Hate Flesh back together.

After all the guys having to clean up some of the demons of their past they decided started playing together. After a few rehearsals, playing once a week, the songs started coming together, both old and new. They hand picked some of the old Father Hate Flesh songs like Attitude, Karolyn and Demon, the latter of which was written by and dedicated to Joey Rose (Riositti) RIP 2007.

They were guys that needed a bassist. Using Taj's bass, Leno worked out the bass lines and would play guitar with Rock belting out on vocals. In this time Taj ran into an old acquaintance from grade school at a Poison concert. This is where Scotty S. pops in. Taj, knowing that Scotty played guitar but wanted to be in a band, offered a tryout on bass. He took the offer. This brought the band to a 4 piece.

They quickly realized they needed a name and couldn't agree one. At practice, Taj (having always used Velvet Dog as his cyber identity) threw out on a whim, "we could use Velvet Dog?"... Scratching their heads, everyone quickly came to agreement.

VELVET DOG was born...

Shortly after Scotty and Velvet Dog parted ways. Velvet Dog must do what is best for the band. Leno stepped back over to bass so the Velvet Dog could move forward. Taj was working on finding someone to fill the bass slot and got an email from Luke the Loud on Milwaukeerocks.com and with a few rehearsals and Halloween coming up Luke took the roll. This is the only show to date Velvet Dog played with 4 members.

Winter of 2008-09 the guys phase out live shows for a few months, breaking their hiatus with a winter show at Chicagos Elbo Room again. Then another show in spring at Silvies Lounge April 30 to a smaller but awesome crew from Chicago, (Hector, Carrie, Tracy, NIck & friends)..

Through this time Velvet Dog was self-recording the new tracks for the cd release, "In Heat". Again, the guys record, engineer, by themselves with a little outside help in mastering from Todd Scott and Tommy Held.

Saturday, May 2, 2009. Velvet Dog hits the stage opening for Britany Fox!