When John Torra walked the halls of Long Island’s Farmingdale High School just a few years ago, he was rarely without his Sony Walkman and favorite cassettes by Quiet Riot, Cinderella, Van Halen, Led Zeppelin, and Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow. And with his long,
shaggy hair, cutoff denim jacket adorned with pins, and Mötley Crüe or Quiet Riot T-shirt, he gave off the distinct vibe of a time-traveling student from the class of 1987 rather than his actual graduating year of 2021.
“A lot of the other kids didn’t understand it because they were into modern-day pop and hip-hop,” says Torra. “When they would see me, they’d be like, ‘Ugh, you remind me of my dad.’ And then you had people who were like, ‘He’s weird.’ The teachers loved it, though. I remember I was in economics class once and my teacher, Mr. Bush, stopped the class mid-lesson because he saw me there. He went, ‘Listen, if this was 1986, John would be sitting next to me in class.’ They appreciated that I was an old soul.”
Mr. Bush must be extra proud of Torra right now because he was just named the new lead singer of Quiet Riot — at the tender age of 23 — after his audition video racked up astronomical numbers online. He’s launching his first round of shows with the band this week, kicking off Oct. 1 at the Cherokee Event Center in West Siloam Springs, Oklahoma.
“That first show is definitely going to be a little stressful,” Torra tells Rolling Stone via Zoom, about an hour before heading off to a band rehearsal. “I know not everything will be perfect. It’s live performance, stuff happens, but I’m not going to let it discourage me. I’m just going to go out there and do the best I can. I’ll put in 110 percent and give the fans their money’s worth coming out to see Quiet Riot, and make sure they go home having a good time.”
Torra has been preparing for this moment ever since he was 11 and his father played him Van Halen as they drove through their hometown of Massapequa, Long Island, in the family pickup truck. His grandmother played him Elvis Presley records as a small child, and his mother — who was born in Ecuador — loved the mellow sounds of Chicago and America, along with disco acts like Donna Summer and the Bee Gees. But nothing prepared him for Van Halen’s “Mean Street.”
“The intro to that song is very unique,” Torra says. “I was like, ‘What is that?’ And he goes, ‘That’s a guitar.’ I said, ‘A guitar can do that?’ When that happened, everything changed. That’s when I became obsessed and developed a passion for this genre and this lifestyle.”
This was 2014, not exactly a peak moment of interest for 1980s hard rock and heavy metal acts among adolescents, but Torra didn’t care. He picked up a guitar, practiced with a maniacal obsession for years, grew his hair out, expanded his denim collection, and mainlined books, documentaries, and YouTube videos about the glory days of Eighties metal. He also bought a Walkman. “I just thought it was cool putting myself in that period,” he says, “and feeling the energy and experiencing what people from that generation experienced because there were no cell phones.”
His father and uncle encouraged the fixation by taking him to the Sam Ash Guitar Center, blasting SiriusXM whenever they were in the truck, and introducing him to slightly lesser-known acts like Vixen, Kix, Great White, Dokken, and Cinderella. His father played drums in local groups back in the Eighties, and Torra loved to look through his old photos from the time.
“Seeing him with the hair, the makeup, and everything was just incredible,” he says. “These were photos of kids going out to clubs, hanging out, not a worry in the world. It was just a great time. And I was just so fascinated by it because I looked at kids my age and I didn’t see that. No one’s going out, no one’s having fun, partying, going to clubs. Everyone’s at home on their phones. So I was saying to myself, ‘I really missed out on a good era.'”
By the time he was 15, Torra was doing his best to bring back that era by playing guitar in throwback groups all across Long Island, and he sharpened his chops with School of Rock classes. He also discovered he had a stunning singing voice and could belt out Zeppelin or Aerosmith classics like a seasoned pro.
After high school ended in 2021, Torra went to Five Towns College in Dix Hills, New York, where he studied mass communications, graduating in 2025. When he wasn’t studying, he was playing shows with his band Fire ‘N Ice, which he formed after placing a “musicians wanted” advertisement on BandMix. They started by covering songs by Skid Row, Cinderella, and Ratt, but slowly started to introduce original material.
Finding gigs wasn’t always easy. “The term ‘heavy metal’ wasn’t really something Long Island was looking for,” Torra says. “The minute you say it, they’re like, ‘Yeah, no, we don’t want that. If you’re playing Billy Joel or the Beach Boys, sure, we’ll have you come in and play some songs. But if you’re doing originals or doing heavy metal, no.'” But Fire ‘N Ice still managed to put out an EP and develop a touring circuit around New Jersey, upstate New York, Pennsylvania, and even the occasional stop in Los Angeles.
Still, Torra dreamed of something bigger. And when Skid Row announced a search for a new lead singer (refusing to even consider a certain Mr. Bach) back in February, he sent in an audition tape. He didn’t receive a reply, but that didn’t discourage him from trying again with Quiet Riot a few months later when he learned they were looking to replace frontman Jizzy Pearl.
(Original vocalist Kevin DuBrow died in 2007, and drummer Frankie Banali followed in 2020. Bassist Rudy Sarzo is the last remaining member from the classic-era lineup.)
“A lot of people were saying, ‘The first thing I thought of was you’ when they put that ad out,” Torra says. “So I didn’t hesitate. I didn’t waste any time. I got into my practice mode, learning Quiet Riot songs, just really listening and just studying it. I mean, every little detail. And the following day, I recorded myself.”
He submitted a video of him singing their two big hits, “Metal Health (Bang Your Head)” and “Cum on Feel the Noize,” along with the deeper cut “Run for Cover.” “I emailed them the videos with my description and my contact information,” Torra says. “And then I was saying to myself, ‘Doesn’t hurt to post [on Instagram],’ not thinking much about it.”
Torra woke up the next morning to a tremendous shock. “My phone is almost exploding with text messages, likes, followers,” he says. “I had gained thousands of followers and thousands upon thousands of views overnight.”
The reaction was mainly from heavy metal fans, but he was also receiving shoutouts from Tracii Guns of L.A. Guns, Michael Sweet from Stryper, former Journey/Yngwie Malmsteen vocalist Jeff Scott Soto, Britt Lightning of Vixen, and SiriusXM disc jockey Tommy London.
“Everyone was so shocked that there’s someone in the world that can sing these songs like Kevin DuBrow,” says Torra. He adds that he naturally has a similar singing voice to DuBrow, but that he also studied the late frontman’s technique. “I just completely nerded out and geeked out and just read old interviews with him where he explained that he drank a lot of room-temperature water and really controlled his breathing.”
Before all this happened, Fire ‘N Ice lined up a gig at L.A.’s Whisky a Go Go opening up for Steelheart, two months after playing there with Dokken. During an Uber drive to the venue, wearing all of his stage clothing, his cell phone rang, and the caller ID said “Regina Banali” — Quiet Riot’s manager and widow of Frankie Banali. (She also directed the excellent 2014 documentary Quiet Riot: Well Now You’re Here.)
“I kind of froze because I was like, ‘I know who this is,'” says Torra. “She wanted to see what my story was, if I was looking to do this for my life, and was willing to sacrifice.”
She was also harboring some suspicions that maybe the video was somehow created via AI or some other nefarious means, and that wasn’t his actual singing voice. Fortunately, Banali was nearby, and he invited her to the show, promising that he’d close with “Metal Health (Bang Your Head)” to prove he was legit.
“I knew that was my moment to really showcase what I can do,” Torra says. “We did ‘Metal Health’ and the club went crazy because at that point everyone had known about the videos. So to finally hear it live, it was just an incredible experience for them. Everyone was saying it’s Kevin DuBrow reincarnated. They were just blown away.”
Things moved quickly from there. Banali asked him to send in a cappella renditions of Quiet Riot songs without any reverb or even a professional mic. She then arranged a Zoom call with Quiet Riot guitarist Alex Grossi, who was understandably a bit skeptical that someone so young was up for the task.
“I said, ‘Listen, this is the one thing I know how to do well,'” he says. “And I said, ‘If I was put on this earth for a reason, it was to do this because I wasn’t born to be a doctor, lawyer, teacher. Music, it’s a thing I love.’ So they said to me, ‘Okay, when can you come out to Los Angeles?'”
Within days, Torra found himself at a Burbank, California, rehearsal studio alongside Sarzo, Grossi, and drummer Johnny Kelly. “They were very nice to me,” he says, “but they definitely were wondering, ‘Can he do it? Is he going to be able to pull this off or is he going to be tapping out by the fifth song?’ Because Quiet Riot, it’s very intense stuff. There’s a lot of screaming, a lot of yelling. It’s definitely not the most pleasant thing for any singer.
“The third song we did was ‘Mama We’re All Crazy Now,'” he continues. “And I saw Rudy, he was nodding his head with his eyes closed and he had his infamous grin he does. And he was like, ‘Yes.’ It was a sign of like, ‘Yes, this is it.'”
They ran through the full Quiet Riot set four times across two days, and at the end Regina Banali said to him, “We’d like to welcome you to the Quiet Riot family.”
“I was trying not to cry,” Torra says. “It really had sunk in because this is what I’ve been searching for and working hard at for almost 10 years, and it was happening.”
He was given the good news on Aug. 18, but was told to keep it quiet until they were ready to go public about a month later. Still, some of his more fervent fans began picking up on the clues. “They pretty much knew something was going on because little by little they noticed different things,” Torra says. “Prior to getting the gig, my hairstyle was a little different. I had a blonde streak. I was about 30 pounds heavier and my style wasn’t the greatest.”
“They gave me a whole wardrobe change,” he continues. “I got into better shape and people were seeing that because I was still doing stuff with Fire ‘N Ice playing and they’re seeing like, ‘Oh, he’s got Wornstar and Rock and Roll Soul clothes. He’s got David Yurman jewelry. He’s got all new hairstyle, everything. Oh, he looks a lot skinnier. Something’s up.'”
Torra didn’t have much time to focus on the online chatter. He was busy taking a Quiet Riot crash course, playing gigs with Fire ‘N Ice — which he’ll keep active when Quiet Riot are off the road — and mentally preparing for the first show in Oklahoma and the rest of the shows that follow.
“It’s definitely going to be a learning experience, but I’m pretty much like a sponge,” he says. “I soak everything in and I love listening and learning. And I think the guys in the band are definitely going to take care of me and help me out, and they’ll guide me and tell me because they have a lot more years of experience on me, so they’ve seen it all.”
Many of his predecessors in hard rock bands dealt with substance abuse issues that crippled their careers. Torra says that isn’t any sort of concern with him. “At the end of the day, this is a job. You don’t show up to your job intoxicated or under the influence. You show up there because this is what you do and you have to do it 100 percent. I never fell into that realm [of drugs]. I’ve seen people fall into that realm, and I shake my head. It’s none of my business. If that’s what they want to do, fine, but I just know myself.”
Torra never got the chance to meet Frankie Banali, but he did visit his grave at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles after landing the job. “I made a promise not to let him down,” he says, “thanked his wife Regina for this amazing opportunity, and asked him to look after me from heaven.”
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