Who Is Richie Supa? About the Musician Mentioned on The Voice
Get to know the musician, here.
When singer Adam David took the stage for his Blind Audition for The Voice Season 27, he had the support of a special mentor figure in his life: musician Richie Supa. Get to know the singer and songwriter, here.
Richie Supa wrote a number of famous rock songs
Supa is one of the secret weapons behind mega rock band Aerosmith, having worked on songs like “Chip Away The Stone”, "Lightning Strikes" and ”Pink,” per his website. "Richie Supa was with us at the very beginning. I was introduced to him in 1973 by David Krebs, we both sang at David’s wedding, I’ve always admired his stuff and wanted to write with him," the band's lead singer Steven Tyler told Metal Edge in 1997.
In addition to writing and recording his own solo albums and collaborations with Richie Sambora, Supa has also written for stars like Bon Jovi, Ozzy Osborne, Mika, Pink, Glen Campbell and Willie Nelson.
Recovery Unplugged
Supa is a key figure at the Recovery Unplugged Treatment Center, which has locations across the country. The center, which offers inpatient and outpatient programs, helps patients recover from addiction and substance use disorder, as well as issues like PTSD, using a combination of traditional therapies and music as a creative and healing outlet.
"Music's been used for years in hospital settings for pain and Alzheimer's, so we didn't invent that wheel, but we applied it to addiction, and it's worked wonders," Supa told The Tennessean. He's been sober himself since 1988, and added, "Music triggers our emotions. It calms our fears, opens up another part of us, and it heals and fixes what’s broken."
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At one of the first Narcotics Anonymous meetings Supa attended, a young woman shared, “All my life I kept the right ones out and let the wrong ones in,” Supa recalled to InTheRooms. This sentiment inspired Supa to try writing about his addiction, and that quote became the first line of the song "Amazing," which he co-wrote with Tyler.
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Aerosmith released the power rock ballad in 1993, and the response from those who connected to its message was overwhelming. "The letters we got after that song was released were phenomenal. People were saying that the song helped them so much," Supa told InTheRooms. "It was then that I realized how much power and magic there is in music and the potential it had to reach people in the recovery community...the seed was planted for what I do now from that first song I wrote about addiction."
