Jack Ponti

Jack Ponti is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, manager, label executive, and consultant.

Career

Jack Ponti is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, manager, label executive, and consultant (with an estimated 100 million plus records sold worldwide) who started his career in the music business playing guitar in the rock band The Rest in his native New Jersey in the late 70s. The Rest featured a young Jon Bon Jovi as vocalist, but despite promotion by other successful New Jersey musicians, such as Southside Johnny and members of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, and a demo produced by Billy Squier, did not obtain a recording contract and split up.Bon Jovi went to form his own band, which in the following years gained international success and multi-million record sales, while Ponti found a job as songwriter and producer for other rock bands. The late music business legend Ahmet Ertegun gave Ponti his first production job and the two grew close.

In the late 80s and early 90s, he wrote songs for Bon Jovi, Alice Cooper, Keel, Trixter, Nelson, Kane Roberts, Joe Lynn Turner, Bonfire and other artists. He also produced and wrote albums for hard rock and glam metal bands Babylon A.D., Baton Rouge, Doro and for his own band Surgin', which he had created in 1985 at the insistence of his then managers. Surgin' disbanded after one record, though subsequent compilations have been released of early demos. Surgin' still has a strong following in the AOR community.