Johnny Kreiss is an American rock drummer who was the drummer of Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin's pre-Guns N' Roses band Hollywood Rose.
In the years after Hollywood Rose, he played in many Local Southern California original rock bands such as, Shire, Striker, and Bad Boys.
Kreis currently plays drums with many bands and of many styles and genres of music ranging from Latin, jazz, polka, Hawaiian, Big Band, Country, Reggae, Pop, R&B, Soul, 50s–60s, Europop, heavy metal, melodic rock, hard rock, Progressive Instru-Metal, hip hop, contemporary fusion jazz, funk and alternative.
In 2007 he regrouped with the original members after 14 years originally formed in 1992 in the South bay area of Southern California, as an original melodic hard rock band called Harmsway. This band consists of many talented musicians from various original local area rock bands. The members of Harmsway since 2007 are Curt Wada, Lead vocalist (formerly of Strip, Centaur), Tommy Myers, bassist (formerly of Centerfold) and Jeffery Trott, lead guitarist (formerly of Knightmare2).
Also, since 2006 Johnny Kreis has played with an original progressive instrumental trio featuring rock guitarist Randy Jacobs and featuring John Vaca on bass guitar. The Musical chemistry of the band is renowned, considering that Johnny Kreis and Randy Jacobs are both Next-Gen SoCal American Born Dutch-Indonesian Rockers, with strong influences of Van Halen, (also a Dutch-Indonesian, drum and guitar duo).
Currently Kreis also plays casual performances with a band and has been the drummer of SoundsUnlimited since 1997. The band features his dad Theo Kreis on keyboards, (his dad had played bass back in the 70s with a polka band that featured Jan Van Halen (Eddie and Alex Van Halen's father) on clarinet and a very young Alex Van Halen on Drums).
The Roots of Guns N' Roses (2004)