Vegas rocker’s career is a Slash, GNR, Van Halen medley

Know this, rock musicians. Whenever Slash calls you into a dressing room for a meeting, you life will forever change.

That happened to Frankie Sidoris in October 2015 before Slash ft. Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators played a show in Temecula, Calif. Slash told his band, which includes Sidoris on rhythm guitar, that Guns N’ Roses was re-forming.

Big deal, to put it mildly. Clearly, the new GNR lineup, which performed at T-Mobile Arena the following April on its “Not In This Lifetime Tour,” would be Slash’s primary focus.

“He was telling us this and it was, wow, this is crazy,” Sidoris says. “It was such big news for fans and we were just hearing it for the first time.”

But not an hour after that meeting, Sidoris took an out-of-the-dark call from Wolfgang Van Halen, son of the late guitar great Eddie Van Halen, asking if Sidoris wanted to jam sometime. It was not a benign request. The younger Van Halen was building his own band, Mammoth WVH. Van Halen had known of Sidoris through a producer who had worked on Slash’s recordings, and a partnership was forged.

“The solar system of my world is pretty crazy,” says Sidoris, who is appearing with fellow rock artist Franky Perez at 7 p.m. today on the “Mondays Dark 7th Anniversary” show. Catch the event at mondaysdark.com.

Sidoris and Perez, both Las Vegas natives, have formed yet another rock band, IE&Y, which debuted in January at Cleopatra’s Barge at Caesars Palace.

IE&Y has worked up the Joe Cocker classic “The Letter” for it Mondays Dark. Travis Cloer, Skye Dee Miles, Tenors of Rock, Jassen Allen and Michelle Johnson are among the performers appearing on the live stream. Host and founder Mark Shunock is set to announce next year’s chosen charities.

“I’m truly amazed by our Mondays Dark team for continuing the mission of cutting $10,000 checks every two weeks throughout the pandemic,” Shunock said Monday. “Our charity partners needed us more than ever. Mondays Dark is not slowing down in 2021. Livestreams have allowed us to reach supporters all over the globe! We’re working hard with community leaders and have so many surprises in store for next year.”

As for his 2021 plans, Sidoris plans to tour and record with Mammoth WVH (Mammoth was Eddie Van Halen’s band, prior to Van Halen) and is still a member of the Conspirators, too.

Perez has also been busy with a project in pandemic. He’s editing his documentary “Franky Perez Crossing The Great Divide,” which chronicles his two cross-country motorcycle tours this year. Perez sang and played his acoustic guitars for front-line workers and also at closed music clubs. The doc includes interviews with folks who talk about the impact of the COVID shutdown to the Vegas entertainment community (yours truly is among those appearing).

Perez hopes that project is completed by the spring and is in talks for distribution, even as we speak.

The IE&Y name is something of a Scrabble puzzle. The name refers to the “ie” that ends Frankie Sidoris’ first name, and the “y” for Franky Perez. I would have named the band Y & Y Not, but I guess that’s why I am a safe distance from the stage.

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His “PodKats!” podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.