Biography
Justin Chase Tranchita is an American singer songwriter, and actor. He was born in Geveva,Illinois on June 22nd, 1981 to parents Julee and Joseph Tranchita. He began playing guitar and writing songs at the age of 13 as he attended high school in Princeton, Illinois.
In 1999, his parents divorced and Justin lived with his father in Branson, Missouri. He briefly attended college at Greenville College to study music, but was persuaded by his manager to begin his music career. He was represented by Don Williams, brother of singer Andy Williams at that time.
In the spring of 1999, Tranchita was asked to perform in Israel where he spent the next 4 months. According to Tranchita the experience, " Changed my life forever " . When Tranchita came back to the United States he decided to make music and acting his life's work. Justin also has a deep love for sailing,he moved to Destin, Florida and met Captain Andrew Stempki, they quickly began working in the sailing charter business. It was there that Tranchita got his true inspiration for music. "We'd always play for music for our guests on the ship."
Stempki and Tranchita created their own sailing charter business Mackinac Charters in 2008. One month later, Deepwater Horizon, a deep water well in the Gulf of Mexico, exploded and killed 11 workers and unleashed crude oil on the beaches of Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and Florida. "The BP oil spill destroyed our entire business that summer and we lost everything."
After the BP oil spill, Tranchita moved his family back to Branson, MO with the explicit goal of entering the music business. His first album,Cock of the Walk, was the songs written during the BP Oil Spill aboard his boat Jokerman, containing the gutsy emotional "Devil Song" which topped the charts in the UK, and won him the Exposure Music Award for Best International Act in 2012 in London, England as the lead singer of Cock Douglas.
2013 brought Tranchita many exciting steps forward in his television career, he was cast in the Discovery Channel new series " Game of Pawns " playing himself. It is a reality/game show filmed in Branson, Missouri and broadcast worldwide on The Discovery Channel. He was also made a jump to film and was cast in the Christian movie Feedback, directed by Danny Rogers.
2013 also brought Tranchita a new vision and career in country music,he teamed up with Robbie Vinton, son of singer Bobby Vinton, and began producing a new series Justin and the Vintons scheduled to air in late 2014.
He also recorded his newest single that is set to be released in early 2014 containing the much anticipated anthem, This is America
