He was playing guitar back in the late 1960s at 5 years old and was backing his dad on rhythm guitar at age 9. In 1969, Hank Snow came up to New Jersey and walked into a club called The Jetty in Bloomfield and watched Paul’s father play. Hank Snow asked Paul’s father if he’d come down to Nashville and cut a record. Paul’s father turned Hank Snow down and said that he couldn’t leave his family. In
Paul’s late teen years, he went on to start playing in garage bands. Then, in 1985, when he was 21, he joined a band called Ritual in New Jersey with the creator of Ritual, Billy Farley (RIP). Ritual already had a 4-track demo cassette that came out in 1984. It consisted of Rock N Roll Demon, Let The Metal Play, Tight, & No Longer Feel. In 198,5 after Paul joined the band Ritual, they cut a song called Give It To Ya Straight at Midnight Studios and had it mixed down by 6-time Emmy Award-winning audio engineer Jay Vicari, who has worked at Saturday Night Live since 1986 up to the current day. After a year and a half, Paul left Ritual sometime between 1986-1987. When Mark was managing the band, Ritual put out the album LTMP ( https://heavymetalrarities.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=188... ), which goes down as Rare Metal. During this period, tattoo artist Paul Booth did all the band logos for LTMP and the tattoo of John The Baptist with his head on a platter on Billy Farley’s back. Then in 199, Paul got pulled back in as manager. He brought in a guitarist called Nat Garner, a guitar player from hell. During this period Billy took the band to Hoboken Studios (it was owned by Madonna and Lenny Kravitz at the time) and Ritual recorded Dark Star and Rude As A Bitch. Nat played rhythm guitar & lead guitar on both of these tracks, and he also played a Hammond v3 on Dark Star. Nat’s career with Ritual was very short-lived. After 2 years, Nat left the band in 1991, and Paul also quit managing & playing with Ritual until 1995 when he reappeared again as the main guitar player and played until 1998, when the band went dead for two years. During these two years, Billy Farley spent time in the studio on a solo project & as a session vocalist from 1998-2000. Billy Farley made the decision to reform Ritual again in 2000, and Pauly D came back in full force on guitar once again. Paul put in a 2 disc album with Ritual called The Gathering consisting of 30 songs. Then Ritual put out the album Secret Lover. After Secret Lover, Paul went on to release one more single with the band titled You’re Already Dead. After the band put out this last single, Paul’s father was murdered, and Billy Farley’s mother passed away from dialysis, both on the same day. By then, Billy Farley and Pauly D broke apart. Billy Farley ended up passing away in April 2019. Billy RIP. Ritual was a big trip through time. Paul hasn’t recorded any Ritual songs since then and does not plan on any kind of Ritual reunion. Billy, you’re the man. There will be no one else like you to write the words.
-Sincerely, Pauly D from Pauly D's Hell Yeah Radio
