BIG RAPIDS – Karaoke fans at Gypsy Nickel Lounge will definitely recognize a friendly face in John Kelley, the man behind the elaborate DJ setup.
Born and raised in Big Rapids and living outside the area, Kelley took musical inspiration from his father who was in a band, and began DJing before taking up karaoke.
“I think I’ve done just about every kind of DJ job I can ever think of,” he said.
His father had the large sound systems needed to DJ or facilitate karaoke.
“Whenever my friends were at a party, they’d want to bring your stuff,” he said.
After a couple of years, the business really took off and he got the name “Red Hot Karaoke”, which has been running for thirty years now.
“At one point, I was doing six shows a week. I did every day except Monday, I even had a show on Sunday afternoon for children,” he said.
Kelley’s bread and butter is usually weddings, but he’s done DJ sets and karaoke at everything from board meetings to birthday parties. Since the COVID-19 pandemic has largely subsided, Kelley was surprised by the demand for his services.
“It went about 100 miles an hour. Everyone had been putting off all their weddings and stuff for the past two years. We’ve just gone crazy with weddings, one after the other. Now I’m back to four nights a week,” he said.
Now, Kelley plays at the Gypsy Nickel on Wednesday nights, Peyton’s Bar in Idlewild on Thursday nights, Sportsman’s Bar in Newaygo on Friday nights, then returns to the Gypsy on Saturday.
“One of the biggest things is when you have someone who has never sung in public who has a super good voice but lacks confidence. They’ll get up there and you can tell they’re scared to death. And they’ll get up there and sing, and people will clap and the look on their face is shocked,” he said.
Having fun, not being a good singer, is the name of the game when it comes to karaoke, according to Kelley.
“Even if they’re not good singers, it doesn’t mean they can’t put on a good show. Some people know they are not good singers. But they’re going to get up there and have fun. And everyone likes it because they’re having fun,” he said.
Kelley makes it a point to praise everyone who goes up and tries to sing, because it takes courage to sing in public.
“Even if they’re not good, they got up and did it. They had the nerve to get up and do it. And that requires a lot,” he said.
Singing karaoke is more important to some people than most people realize.
“For some people it’s like an emotional release. Some people who will come every week sing the same song and you can tell after they sing their song, their whole emotion changes, it makes them happy and brings them out of their shell,” he said.
Kelley loves making people happy and seeing people’s faces light up when the crowd enjoys their performances.
“That’s kind of my job is to make people happy, to bring them out of their shell. And it’s fun. It’s really interesting stuff. You can see people evolve, especially in music, because some people, they’ll start singing some songs. And the next thing you know they’re playing with bands,” he said.
