Michael Nitro will be appearing at Paulie’s Little Bite of Italy, 15456 N. 99th Ave., 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 29, in his “Acoustic with Michael Nitro” solo performance.

Call 623-972-3311 for reservations.

A New Jersey native, Nitro started singing and playing guitar at a young age, inspired first by his musician parents and also by the rock and pop bands of the time. Listening at home to his parents’ record collection – Elvis, Hank Williams, Chet Atkins, Johnny Cash and Frank Sinatra – would start Nitro on a path he would stay for the rest of his life. The attention of the girls on the playground only fueled his determination to learn the bubblegum pop of The Jackson 5, The Osmonds and The DeFranco Family.

Nitro’s mother took him to see The King at Madison Square Garden in 1972.

“It was an experience seeing Elvis in person, you really knew he was The King of Rock and Roll,” Nitro recalls. “At 11-years-old, though, to watch my mother watching Elvis ... that was a whole other experience! Within days after the concert, she bought me every Elvis record she could find.”

By the time Nitro was in high school, he was forming bands covering Elvis and the top rock groups of the day.

Nitro moved to Arizona in 1979 and made fast friends with Glen Buxton, the former lead guitar player and founder of The Alice Cooper Band. In the 1980s, they played shows in and around the southwest. During this time, Nitro was honing his songwriting and stage skills while vetting players for his own project. The Michael Nitro Band released their first CD, “Winning,” in 1991. The day the first 1,000 CDs arrived from the factory, Nitro got a call from local promoter Danny Zelisko asking him if he could open for Neil Young as an acoustic act at Desert Sky Pavilion. Nitro grabbed his CDs and the opportunity to play the big stage and has never looked back.

As his name suggests, the singer/songwriter and guitarist Nitro brings intense energy to the stage. He has warmed and wowed the crowd for national acts from The Allman Brothers to Yvgwie including Bon Jovi, Deep Purple, Grand Funk Railroad, REO Speedwagon and the list goes on.

“I have so many amazing memories and have been incredibly fortunate to share the stage with legendary performers like Sammy Hagar, Bo Diddley and Sam Moore. I view each experience as a lesson in greatness,” he stated.

Nitro’s song “Distant Shore,” from his first album, can be heard in two episodes of the Kevin Bacon series “City on a Hill” on Showtime. Although Nitro has written outside of the rock genre, he is heavily inspired by the dynamics of Led Zeppelin, the lyrical phrasing of Bad Company lead vocalist and founder, Paul Rodgers and the raw, sexy, rasp of Steven Tyler of Aerosmith.

When Nitro does his “Acoustic with Michael Nitro” show, he performs those same songs from his parents’ record collection plus a wide variety of favorites to clap, dance and sing along to. He also performs with his daughter, Lisa Nitro, who currently studies at Berklee Music in Boston and who now carries the Nitro musical torch.

Nitro’s acoustic and band event calendar can be found at MichaelNitro.com.