Hot As A Pepper is not your run-of-the-mill cover band churning out the same old tired songs from this music genre or that, with little or no emotion.
Hot As A Pepper brings high energy, fun, funky and upbeat music to your venue or event and plays what YOU want to hear. A variety of genres and generations are covered including some originals.
One thing is for sure – you get what you pay for! We deliver professional attitude, audio, lighting and a show to match!
Book HAAP for your next HAAPpening!
Member Profiles:
Trilby Rose Allen – LEAD VOCALs
Trilby Rose performed for the first time with HAAP in June of 2023 as a guest vocalist and by September 20th, she had taken over the position of front person!
Originally from Tryon, SC, Trilby relocated to Greenville to attend the SC Governor School for the Arts. Trilby has taken workshops and courses Belmont University, Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum, International Lyric Academy, as well as vocal coaching and performance. Trilby has also performed with other Upstate SC based bands such as Randomonium.
Trilby is a singer-songwriter and you can find her original music on her own social media pages, including FB, YouTube and Tik Tok: @TrilbyRoseMusic
John M. Hoyt – Bass, Vocals, Guitar & Technology
Originally from Fayetteville Arkansas where he played from 1978-1988, first in the country band “Easy Pickin’s”, then rock/blues bands; “Don’t Pass Go!” & “Drastic Measures” before moving to Los Angeles. While in LA, John made his living doing session work, playing in multiple bands & performing at venues such as The Viper Room, The Whiskey, The Roxy and The Troubadour.
John’s bands have played in over 30 states and opened for acts such as George Thorogood, Pat Travers, Head East, Bad Company, BTO, and Little Feat. Since moving to SC in 1998, John formed the Christian band “Jesus Fish” and took on pick-up gigs as they presented themselves. John joined up with The Dockside Band in 2010 as bass player, vocalist, writer, promoter and technology engineer. John parted ways with TDB in April of 2012 and set out to find the perfect musicians for a new dance and party band concept, Hot As A Pepper!
Find more information about John M. Hoyt on his personal site.
Equipment: GK 700 RBII / NEO 4×10, Lakland 55-02 Custom & Deluxe models, NSD upright electric, Yamaha RBX-775, RBX-170 fretless, Roland GK 20 and 55 synths, Fender Kingman ACB, various other guitars, amps.
Chris “CC” Carroll – Guitar, Vocals
Originally from New Jersey. Moved to the Greenville area in 2010. Professional session musician and composer for over 30 years. A multi-instrumentalist who plays drums, guitar, bass, piano, keys, and anything with strings or that you have to hit. Samples of his music from a recent project can be found at https://www.reverbnation.com/a_1515008017/songs As well as a musician Chris is also an Aerodynamic Engineer, an artist and, has designed several guitars. Samples of his art can be found at https://aranami-cc.deviantart.com/gallery/ which also includes one of the guitars he has designed. Oh….. and he’s older than dirt. Just saying…..
Wilson Ligon – Keys, Guitar, Vocals
Wilson grew up in Greenville and took piano lessons at a young age but switched to guitar in high school after listening to too much Nirvana and Pink Floyd. Before graduating from Clemson, he played in local hard rock bands and also in a punk band signed to Go-Kart records from 2002-2004 where he learned that life on the road was not an enjoyable long-term prospect and that he should probably go to college instead.
After graduating from Clemson, he then moved out west to Oregon during the early 2010s for a while and played in a handful of bands in and around Portland. And yes, everything you’ve ever heard about Portland is 100% true. He moved back to Greenville and married a lovely woman and currently has three blue eyed baby princesses at home.
After having not really touched a keyboard for the better part of a decade and a half, Wilson fell back in love with it and started to brush up his skills on the off-chance that (for example) the biggest party band in town would ever need someone to play keys for them. And as luck would have it in 2019, Wilson randomly discovered the job posting for Hot as a Pepper and after a mutual friend introduced him to John, everything worked out.
After the departure of Shannon at the start of the Pandemic, Wilson took over the lead vocalist position until we found our permanent front-person!
Wilson plays a Korg M50 and a Gibson SG.
Ethan Russell – Drums
Ethan Russell is a Greenville South Carolina native and has a passion for striking drums and creating grooves that make people want to move. His influences range from hard rock, to funk, to hip-hop.
Bands like Red hot Chili Peppers, who combine all three genres are one of the big influences for the twenty-five-year-old drummer and can be heard in his playing.
Ethan’s passion for drumming, music and creativity drives him to learn from other musicians, while continuously developing his own percussive sound to elevate each song and performance.
Ethan joined up with HAAP in November of 2023.
The Habanero Horns – Sax & Trumpet
Hot As A Pepper has teamed up with two fun guys, Tom Wheat and Ed Wimberly who have performed with us at Greenville’s Main Street Fridays and most larger parties, fundraisers, weddings, festivals and other events.
Ed Wimberly was a founding member of the Salems, a popular band in Rock Hill and continues to play with them when they have reunion shows.
Tom was born and raised in Nottingham, England. He moved to South Carolina in 2011 and has built a prolific career as a professional musician and teacher. When he’s not playing with HAAP, Tom performs with several other local and national touring bands, and teaches saxophone and clarinet in his private studio. In his free time, Tom loves watching football (soccer) and cooking for his family.
The Habanero Horns will make any event hotter – so be sure to ask about adding them to the lineup for your special occasion.
Backup and Fill-In Players:
Lance Sweatt – Drums
Lance started playing drums almost as soon as he was born, beating on anything he could find, but it was not until he saw Neal Peart in the Moving Pictures Tour that he was inspired take his skills further. Lance attended the Fine Arts Center with Gary Robinson for two years and was even given a full scholarship to Anderson College, but opted to seek a touring career.
Other band’s he has played with include his brother’s band, The Dion Sweatt band, and local heroes, Violent Peace, who were signed by Mercury.
After filling in on many shows with Saturdayze and Hot As A Pepper, he formally joined up with HAAP in November of 2021 and in began touring again with national acts in October 2022.
Shannon Ferguson – Vocals
Shannon Ferguson is a vocalist based in Spartanburg, SC whose vibrant presence, fun-filled attitude, and engaging voice lights up any stage. From a very young age, Shannon has been classically trained in both opera and piano and she has been actively performing for over 10 years. By becoming the most recent addition to the Upstate’s favorite dance and party band “Hot As A Pepper”, she shows her versatility to not only serenade her audiences with opera arias, but also belt out and boogie down to the most rocking dance tunes of all time! When Shannon is not on stage, she spends her time designing and promoting live music events and fundraisers in the Upstate area. Some of these events include: “Hub City SOUL! Aretha Franklin Tribute”, “Fusion Fest: Femme Takeover”, “The Annual Melting Pot Music Festival”, and many others. Shannon’s greatest passion is music, and through her performances and events she hopes to inspire other women to follow their dreams… and a fun time doing it!
Shannon has left Hot As A Pepper as of April 2020 and is pursuing her solo career in Georgia but will join us on stage when in the area and for larger shows!
Gavin GLover – Drums
Gavin is a full-time performer and music educator in the upstate. He received his BA in General Music and is currently working towards a graduate degree in film scoring and composition. He proudly endorses Vater Drumsticks, 1710 Percussion, Vratim, and TnR products. “It’s truly a blessing to get to teach and perform music for a living. I’m not here to make it big. I just want to be kind, create, polish my craft, and share some of the knowledge that I’ve been very blessed to obtain.”
Gavin joined up with HAAP in May of 2020 and played as primary drummer until October 2021 and is currently pursing his career in orchestration for film/video but remains our go-to fill-in!
Carlos Perez – Guitar, Vocals (guitarrista de respaldo)
A native of Cuba, Carlos moved with his family to the US at the age of 3 – landing first in Charlotte, then to Anderson at age 10. After the typical high school garage band experience, Carlos took on the lead guitar and vocal duties with “August”, a popular dance band based in Anderson. Carlos toured the Southeast with “August” from the late 70’s to early 80’s while attending Clemson.
After Clemson, Carlos moved to Miami and was away from music for several years to focus on his new family and career. He rejoined the music scene in 2005 with various Miami dance bands which included former members of the Miami Sound Machine, Expose and the Stylistics. In 2007, he joined one of the top cover bands in Miami, known as “EGO”. With shows from Palm Beach to Key Largo, Carlos performed as lead guitarist and vocalist with “EGO” until 2011, then with various cover bands in Miami until his return to SC in 2014.
Once back in the Upstate, Carlos joined Greenville-based, “Groove Planet” in 2014 – headed by the acclaimed R & B artist, Whitney Walters (now Whitney Bradley). Having enjoyed 2 + years with Whitney and Groove Planet, Carlos has now joined Hot As a Pepper exclusively as of November, 2016. Carlos prefers PRS and Fender guitars and Marshall amps which “go to 11”.
Mary Norris – Vocals, Guitar
Mary Norris was born in Charleston, SC and is a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and front-person for indie rock band, Salti Ray. She performs folk, indie, and rock, and has been writing music for over 10 years. She has performed at various venues in both the upstate and low country SC and at events such as the 2016 Hub City Block Party, 2016 Melting Pot Music Festival, and 2018 Spring Fling. In February of 2017, Norris released her first original EP, titled The Man on the Moon. She joined Hot As a Pepper in December of 2017 and has been performing with them since! Norris graduates with her BA in Commercial Music from the University of South Carolina Upstate in 2019.
Tony Gardo – Keyboards, Sax & Vocals
Tony joined Hot As A Pepper after sitting in with us on January 31st 2014. It was apparent that he needed to be providing his skills to HAAP.
Tony’s father played the sax & his mother was a pianist, so he grew up surrounded by music. In 1987, Tony attended The Fine Arts Center of Greenville, SC, then The Art Institute of Atlanta and studied many musical classes & music business courses.
While in Atlanta, Tony explored the booming live music scene & fell in love with entertaining people with his music. Heworked with a couple of Atlanta’s best rock & roll groups & toured the East Coast from 1988-1993, then moved back to Greenville, SC & met THE OATH.
The Oath toured the East Coast & opened for Alice Cooper on Alice’s ‘Brutal Planet Tour’. They worked relentlessly and in 1999 recorded the CD “Realistic Dreamers” which has had the most airplay time of all their originals.
Tony played with church bands for a few years and then started touring the world playing as the party band on Princess Cruise Lines, ultimately working with 2 cruise bands, “ON THE ROXX” and “STRAIT UP” from 2007-2012.
Interesting fact: Tony has also played together with John of Hot As A Pepper once before with “The Shakes” band.
Chris Eller – Drums
Chris was born in Queens New York and has had formal studies on drums and trumpet from 5th grade through 12th along with private studies in college for one year. A studio musician in West Palm Beach, Fl from 1984-1986. Moved to South Carolina in 1986. Taught drum lessons @ The Music Source in Clemson, S.C. Which is where Chris met George Fennington, a microbiologist at the university of Clemson. Together, they formed “The Merge”, a high energy R&R band which was around from 1987-1994.
Chris also was the owner of The Alley Restaurant/Pub from 1996-2001 and performed in the house band called “Tha Alley Cats” which played R&B/Motown and R&R stylings. Chris had several fill-in projects from 2002-2008.
Since joining HAAP in 2012 Chris has performed blues sessions and tracked percussion in the studio for radio play projects.
Currently playing Gretsch and Tama Starclassic drums, Mapex Black Panther snares, Dw and Tama foot pedals and Zildjian/Sabian cymbals.
Chris departed HAAP in April 2020..
The Belle Peppers – Vocals and additional instruments
Megan Carolina Hoyt – Vocals and also instrumental cocktail & dinner hour music on guitar and keyboards
Keely Rose McDonald – Vocals
Nissa Ching – Sax