User:Revpdaddy/Dan Acosta

Dan Acosta

 Dan Acosta was born & raised in Huntington Station, NY, in the suburbs of Long Island. He was raised by his mother, who divorced from his father in 1980 due to his abusive alcohol addiction. Being the middle child of three boys, Dan grew up faster than most kids, and that lead to him becoming mixed up in drugs, alcohol, and eventually ending up in a residential reform school (Lake Grove School) by the time he was just thirteen years old. 

While in reform school, Dan learned to play guitar as a way to keep himself out of trouble. His very first experience with guitar was watching one of the dorm staff members playing various folk & rock songs. Dan learned by watching and listening, and eventually began to mimic what he was seeing. The staff member took Dan aside, taught him the basics of notes & chords, and then Dan began to learn from books & popular guitar magazines. By the age of fifteen, Dan had written his first song., titled "Without Your Love," about a girl he was dating at the school. He had already been singing since the age of six years old in elementary school, so this was just a natural progression to him and came fairly easy. 

After spending three years in Lake Grove School, and being placed back into the public school system, Dan graduated in 1991 from Walt Whitman High School . He jumped from job to job for almost a full year, trying to figure out what he wanted to do with his life. He wasn't able to go to college because his mother didn't have the money to send him - she was still working three part time jobs, seven days a week, to keep their house afloat, while the youngest of the three brothers finished high school. So in 1992, while attending a local festival with friends, Dan was offered a job travelling with a carnival, moving amusement rides & operating them. 

Always up for new adventures, Dan packed up a bag, jumped on his motorcycle, and hit the road with Silver Dollar Shows (now known as Blue Sky Amusements), travelling on & off with them for three years, all over the east coast from Connecticut to Florida. He worked on their Music Fest/Flying Bobs, the Gravitron, the Zipper, the "Big Eli" Eagle 16 Ferris Wheel, as well as various kiddie rides. And while out on the road, Dan began to play guitar again, and he also began writing songs about his life's experiences with the carnival - the places he travelled to, the people he met, and just how things were in general. It was out on the road where Dan first began to hone his style of songwriting. 

In 1993, while in Hollywood, Florida, Dan was fired by one of the carnival heads, and was left to find his own way back to NY, with barely $100 in his pocket. Luckily for him, he had made friends with a couple who lived in Young Circle, so he was able to stay with them for a few weeks until he could head back home on a Greyhound bus. Dan also had a girlfriend in tow when he arrived back in NY, and that was when he decided that it was time to settle down a bit, and start on a new path in life. He did continue to work with SDS locally on fairs & carnivals for another three years off & on, but he didn’t travel anymore on a full time basis.

Dan picked up a job at a local arts & crafts store as a stock clerk working the overnight shift in late 1993, and it was there Dan was introduced to a guy named Mike Hayes, and they became very close friends. Mike also played guitar & sang, so one night, the two of them threw around the idea of jamming together & possibly starting a band. That was when Axis Unknown was born... and their very first performance as a hard rock band, was on New Year's Eve of 1993-94, in then guitarist Dan Berg's apartment during a party he was hosting. The original line up in 1994 was: Dan Acosta - Vocals & Lead Guitar Mike Hayes - Vocals & Guitar Dan Berg - Guitar Brian Schweitzer - Bass Guitar Gabe Kreiser - Drums 

Dan has since parted ways with the band's co-founder Mike Hayes, but to this day they remain good friends. Over the years they have reunited to perform shows, and even had a side project called "MDMT" in 2009, which featured Dan's 14 year old nephew Mike Sanchez on drums, who remained on as Axis Unknown's drummer until 2011. Players have come & gone over the years, but one thing has remained a constant - Dan Acosta/Axis Unknown has become a name well recognized & respected by both his fans & peers.  In March of 2011, Dan stepped into the professional wrestling ring, to further branch out his abilities & talents, as well as lending his music to the wrestlers for their entrance themes. His most notable accomplishment so far, was writing custom theme songs for former ECW/WCW/WWE wrestler Mikey Whipwreck & his clique "The Order of The Black" (Axis Unknown song "The Prophecy"), and for wrestling heels the "Iraqi Butchers" - also known as former WCW/WWF wrestler "The NY Brawler" Lou Fabiano/Sheik Mohammed Hussein & former WWF wrestler "Bad Boy" Rocky Shore (Axis Unknown song "Solitude"). Dan also wrestles himself, for NJ based federation (ECPW) East Coast Pro Wrestling's Long Island Division, as "The Mercenary", as part of the Iraqi Butchers Tag-Team . As Dan Acosta jokingly puts it, "I'm gonna' be the most famous UN-famous person anyone has NEVER known!!"
 * Over recent years, Dan Acosta has been cast on such notable shows as Spike TV's "Ink Masters" hosted by Dave Navarro of Jane's Addiction, the Food Network's "Worst Cooks of America" hosted by Bobby Flay & Anne Burrell , Tru TV's "Impractical Jokers" Season 3 premier episode (Feb 7, 2012}, The CW Network's "Bill Cunningham Show" (October 2012), and "The Jerry Springer Show"(Feb 8, 1998), just to name a few. He is a multi-faceted performer & entertainer, not just sticking to one genre or aspect of the entertainment business. He is a definite "outside the box" thinker when it comes to his entertaining abilities.