Richie Onori Richie Onori is a man of so many talents it’s hard to keep track. He’s been the drummer for Sweet for the past five years, but his timekeeping prowess has been behind many other icons in music — Keith Emerson, Richie Sambora, Louis Johnson, Ronnie James Dio, Paul Rodgers, Slash, Steve Lukather, Rick Derringer, Larry Carlton, Robbie Krieger, Uli Jon Roth, and Louis Johnson, among them. Onori grew up with Cream, Hendrix and Deep Purple, so it was serendipitous that he would form a strong musical bond with Stuart Smith. After jamming together at a local Los Angeles watering hole, the foundation was set and the two began working regularly together. Smith invited Onori to play with him on some live dates with singer Joe Lynn Turner (Rainbow, Deep Purple). Soon after, the concept of Heaven & Earth came into view. The drummer appears on the two previous Heaven & Earth albums, Heaven & Earth Featuring Stuart Smith and Windows to the World, as well as the EP A Taste of Heaven. His skills as an in-the-pocket drummer have earned him well-deserved respect by peers and fans alike. Onori also has a very successful line of guitar straps and works with Albion Amplifiers as a U.S distributor. He brings an artist’s perspective to his companies (his strap line’s motto is “For musicians, by musicians”) and possesses an innate understanding of what other musicians need and want. In 2012, Onori released a solo album called Days of Innocence, a collection of songs influenced by the California music scene he grew up on in Los Angeles during the 60s and 70s. As it is, the drummer will be spending much of 2013 with Heaven & Earth as they bring Dig to the masses. “Heaven & Earth is finally the band Stuart and I envisioned when we first met,” Onori says. “We’re ready to show the world what real classic rock is all about.” .