Born in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, Grehan began playing piano and switched to guitar at age 11. His early influences included Deep Purple, Jimi Hendrix and Santana. Grehan recorded his first single at 17, with a band known as Stytch.
Grehan attended Fanshawe College in London, Ontario, and received a diploma in Recorded Music Production. During this time he wrote "New Girl Now" which would later become one of Honeymoon Suite's biggest hits. After moving to Toronto he hooked up with singer Johnnie Dee in 1982 and together they recruited the other members to form Honeymoon Suite. Their subsequent demo recording of "New Girl Now" was entered into a contest sponsored by radio station Q107 and they won first prize. This exposure led to a record deal with Warner Music and the band released their first self-titled album in 1984.
Honeymoon Suite (named after the band members' hometown of Niagara Falls, Ontario) sold over 300,000 copies of their debut in Canada and toured North America and Europe extensively. They were the opening act for many touring acts including Heart, ZZ Top and Journey. The band released two more albums during the 1980s (The Big Prize and Racing After Midnight) and received much exposure when their songs were featured in the hit TV show Miami Vice. Grehan even played the lead role in a 1986 Pepsi commercial, air-guitaring a solo originally done by Vinnie Moore.

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