Operator

Operator was formed in Los Angeles, California, originally conceived as a solo project by actor and musician Johnny Strong, known for his film roles in movies like Black Hawk Down and The Fast and the Furious. The name Operator was used for a solo project created by Johnny Strong, an actor and musician, who has appeared in movies such as Black Hawk Down (2001), The Fast and the Furious (2001), Get Carter (2000) and The Glimmer Man (1996). The first Operator album, Can You Hear Me Now (2003), was a self-released demo, and is very hard to find as well as sold out on the band's website. The project's early sound was rooted in hard rock and post-grunge, built around Strong's own guitar, bass, piano and vocal work before it ever became a true band.

The independently released demo caught the ear of a major label, marking the turning point in Operator's story. It attracted the attention of Atlantic Records, which signed Operator in 2007, and Strong soon began recording Operator's Atlantic debut as a solo album playing the lead/rhythm guitar, bass, piano, backing and lead vocals. To bring the material to the stage, he eventually put together a band to play live; rhythm consisting of guitarist Paul Phillips, lead guitarist Rikki Lixx, bassist Wade Carpenter, and drummer Dorman Pantfoeder completed the lineup. Notably, guitarist Paul Phillips brought pedigree from another well known rock act, as the band was also made up of former Puddle Of Mudd guitarist Paul James Phillips. With this lineup in place, Operator's Atlantic debut, Soulcrusher, was released in the summer of 2007, and the album has since sold over 110,000 copies and peaked No. 14 on the heatseekers chart and has produced three singles: "Soulcrusher", "Nothing to Lose" and "Delicate". Soulcrusher pushed Operator into mainstream rock visibility, and 2007 became the band's busiest year on the road, including a run of dates supporting Avenged Sevenfold. Avenged Sevenfold finalized support and dates for their upcoming tour as the band was gearing up for the release of Avenged Sevenfold, due out October 16, 2007, and they were joined by The Confession and Operator. The album's singles found homes well beyond rock radio, as "Soulcrusher" was featured on the soundtrack of Madden NFL 08 and MX vs. ATV: Untamed, and was featured as TNA Wrestling 2008 PPV event No Surrender's official theme song , while "Nothing to Lose" was featured on the soundtrack of Burnout Paradise and was confirmed as TNA Wrestling 2008 PPV event Lockdown's official theme song. Critics drew comparisons to established rock heavyweights, with Revolver Magazine comparing them to "Chris Cornell belting for a more radio-friendly Pantera." After the initial rush of activity, Operator's path grew quieter and more sporadic, with Johnny Strong's acting career pulling focus for a time. Reports at one point indicated Operator was on hiatus while vocalist Johnny Strong worked on the action film Sinners and Saints (2010) , though Strong later clarified the project had never truly ended. He posted a video explaining that he never disbanded Operator, he was the one making the records the entire time, stating that there would be more Operator records because every time he got in the studio, he was making Operator music. True to that word, the band continued to release music sporadically in the years that followed, with subsequent albums including The War of Art (2010), Close to Extinction (2012), War Horse (2015), and Volume 7: White Light (2018), while the band remained active with touring members Paul Phillips, Ricki Lixx, Wade Carpenter, and Dorman Pantfoeder. Today Operator is remembered as a distinctive product of its era, a post-grunge outfit fronted by an actor turned frontman that carved out a lasting niche in rock radio, video games, and wrestling soundtracks.

Operator's 2007 tour cycle in support of Soulcrusher is exactly the window Wayne Dennon captured for this archive, having photographed the band across two shows that year in two different cities. Those two nights yielded 79 photographs now preserved in the collection, images that have gone on to be viewed 57,949 times by archive visitors, a testament to the enduring interest in this brief but memorable chapter of mid 2000s hard rock. As part of waynedennon.com's broader mission to preserve his concert photography from 2002 onward, these Operator shots stand as a small but well loved corner of Wayne's legacy, capturing a band and a moment in rock history exactly as it happened.