John Lilley learned to play the guitar at nine years old after he saw The Beatles perform on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964. He initially learned to play jazz and folk music, with his first teacher being folk and bluegrass expert Jerry Ricks. He eventually studied jazz improvisation with Dennis Sandole and then jazz, theory, orchestration, composition and arranging with Calvin Harris. Lilley also participated in visual arts, drawing voraciously while in school and mostly painting as an adult.\n', '

In his twenties during the mid-1970s, Lilley got involved in the local Philadelphia rock music scene, as the manager and guitarist of the Get Right Band and later became the guitarist for Robert Hazard and the Heroes, who went on to write Cyndi Lauper\'s hit "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." For a brief time in the late 1970s, Lilley sold ads for a local monthly periodical, County Lines magazine.\n', '

After a sudden and unexpected departure from the Heroes, Lilley joined another local Philadelphia band, The Hooters, in 1983. The band combined reggae, ska, and rock\'n\'roll in their music.\n', '

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