EDITOR’S NOTE: This is one of a series of Saturday profiles of area residents and their stories. To suggest a profile, contact features editor Burton Cole at bcole@tribtoday.com.

YOUNGSTOWN — John Hanti was literally raised on rock ‘n’ roll. Born in 1951 in Farrell, Pa., his parents owned a chitlin’ circuit nightclub there called Bar Haiti. The family lived in an apartment above the club. Before he could walk, Hanti was seeing and hearing early R&B pioneers such as Joe Turner, Faye Adams, Ray Charles and Little Richard.

The chitlin’ circuit, a network of black nightclubs dotting the country during that era, was where the road to rock ‘n’ roll began — for popular music and John Hanti.

“I remember Faye Adams singing her hit ‘Shake a Hand’ there in 1953. She set me on her lap and sang it to me. That was the defining moment of my life.”

Hanti is today the owner and president of SST Studios and Rentals in Weehawken, N.J., a prestigious recording studio and music industry complex serving clients such as Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, Miley Cyrus, Jennifer Lopez and the Rolling Stones. He is also a respected record producer with nearly 40 years’ worth of rock, pop and jazz albums in his catalog.

Hanti credits the dynamic live music scene of Youngstown, Warren and Sharon during his teen years for providing him with the foundation of his success.

“I began playing the organ when I was 9 years old and started touring around the Valley at 13,” he said. “I was one of the few players who had a Hammond B-3 organ–a mammoth instrument popularized by the Rascals’ Felix Cavaliere — so I was in demand. By the time I was 15, I was making more money than many adults.”

Legendary WHOT disc jockey Boots Bell became the first of many mentors to take Hanti under their wings over the years.

Hanti fondly recalled, “My bands played all the area gigs where Boots would spin records between sets — Champion Rollarena, Yankee Lake, the Freak Out, the Bugout in Sharon. Boots always had time for me. He was the first guy of celebrity stature at that point who told me, ‘You’ve got it, kid. You’ve got what it takes.’ That gave me tremendous self-confidence.”

Being a local high school rock star was not all smooth sailing, though.

During his senior year at Hickory High, his gym teacher, leading a group of students, ambushed Hanti with a pair of scissors, intending to shear his long hair.

Hanti remembered: “I had the presence of mind to scream, ‘My eye, my eye, you’ve put out my eye!’ That spooked them and they scattered. Nobody wanted to be responsible for poking my eye out with a pair of scissors.”

For a while, Boots Bell hosted a television show on WFMJ called ‘What Generation Gap?’ on which Hanti made several guest appearances. He had transferred to Kennedy Christian in Sharon. Knowing of the scissors incident, Boots asked him on the show one day how he felt about it.

The next day, the monsignor called Hanti into his office and was livid. According to Hanti, the monsignor complained, “No less than 35 irate parents are threatening to pull their kids out of school. They want to know how I could let a kid like you expose their children to such antisocial thoughts. If you ever talk about this school on that show again, you will no longer be welcome here.'”

Bell rose to Hanti’s defense. “He told me, ‘You can’t let people influence you like this. You’re a good kid, an incredible musician. Keep your head up and keep moving forward.'”

Taking that advice to heart, Hanti moved forward to Youngstown State University. He soon realized, however, that he had already mastered in life the lessons being taught in his classes. Near the end of his second year, he’d had enough of school,

Next move: Pittsburgh. There, he formed a band daringly called Virgin and continued his pattern of success. In 1975, he left Virgin and Pittsburgh to migrate south to the Gold Coast of South Florida. What followed, he said, was “an incredible, evolutionary period of my life.

“I had always been the leader of my bands,” he added, “always the guy who took care of business. In South Florida, the business side of the music business became more compelling to me than the music side.”

When the famed Beatles merchandising guru, Nat Weiss, befriended him at a Fort Lauderdale nightclub and suggested he move to New York City, the seed of Hanti’s ultimate success was planted.

Taking the suggestion to heart, he ventured back north to New York in 1978. He had no job and not much money, but he had unshakeable faith in himself.

Weiss mentored Hanti, as did other important music industry figures in the city. The most significant of these mentors was Record Plant owner Roy Cicala. One of the most celebrated recording engineers in history, Cicala taught Hanti the ropes. It was a deep and abiding friendship that would endure until Cicala’s death in 2013.

“No words could adequately express my gratitude and my love for Roy Cicala,” Hanti said. “I have tried to give back to younger artists the inspiration and the wisdom that he gave to me. I miss him every day.”

By 1983, Hanti had formed a company called SST Rentals (for Studios Systems and Transport) to provide stage gear (called “backline”) to touring bands. When “The Second British Invasion” came to fill MTV’s growing need for new artists and music videos, SST was there to provide the visiting bands with vans, tour personnel, and stage equipment. It launched the company in a big way.

Thirty-five years later, SST is one of America’s top backline firms. Its complex in Weehawken now houses studios for recording, rehearsal, and dance hosting a constant stream of celebrity artists (including the organist who first inspired Hanti, Felix Cavaliere).

This success did not come without a price.

In September 2012, Hanti was critically injured in an auto accident. One month later, Superstorm Sandy sent six feet of Hudson River water into the SST buildings. The damage was devastating. It took Hanti three years to rebuild SST, and five years to recover from the accident. Rebuilding was a Herculean effort.

“I questioned myself constantly — ‘Is this crazy? Have I made a huge mistake?’ But then this angel on my shoulder would always whisper in my ear, ‘Don’t give up. Take another shot.'”

Today, Hanti remains at the helm of SST and he continues to support Mahoning Valley music. “One of my proteges and collaborators is a songwriter and producer in the Valley. We are always on the lookout for outstanding area artists to work with. This is how I keep my roots alive.”

Expounding on that thought, Hanti added, “There has always been a strong support system for music in the Valley, a system that produced so many extraordinary talents like Phil Keaggy, Sarah Turner and Dave Grohl. There is no region in America quite like it.”

For interested readers, the SST website includes additional information and stories: www.sstrentals.com