Tony Oros peforms an acoustic set during a recent engagement. The singer and guitarist arrived in Park City in 2004 and has built a career creating and booking cover bands and his solo show through his boutique agency, Park City Productions. Credit: Photo courtesy of Tony Oros For more than 22 y ears, singer and guitarist Tony Oros has rocked boisterous night-club crowds and serenaded intimate audiences by performing covers from ABBA to Frank Zappa. “I started gigging in Park City in 2004,” he said. “I came up from (Los Angeles) because I had a monthly gig in Salt Lake City that ended up lasting a lot of years and paid a lot of bills.” Oros drove up the canyon to Park City to perform his solo classic-rock cover show at the now-defunct Ringo’s, Cisero’s, Bistro 412 and the Sidecar, and has continued to perform at The Corner Store, The Spur Bar Grill and Prime Steakhouse, to name a few. He put together cover bands such as the Southern Rock-laced Mullet Hatchet, dance band Rage Against the Supremes, and his signature group, the Coverdogs, which are booked out of his agency, Park City Productions. So, what is the special sauce that keeps Oros, who is now 56, stoked for his next gig?  “New energies.” “Anytime you’re a working cover musician in your 50s, there’s going to be ebbs and flows in your enthusiasm,” he said. “Over the years, I explored some nonmusical interests. Before COVID I was getting into acting and enjoying the audition process, which, creatively, was a completely different hemisphere.” Oros, a history buff, also tossed around the idea of teaching history when the pandemic eased. “I talked with the school board and got my FBI background check and stuff, but economics steered me away from that as well as the current zeitgeist,” he said. “With a subject like history, there will be some contention there, and I didn’t know how well I would do with ‘Karen’ parents.” Cover-song artist Tony Oros’ new project is Seger In Town, a Bob Seger tribute that features members of his Coverdogs band and two musicians known for their Dueling Pianos show at Keys on Main in Salt Lake City. Credit: Photo courtesy of Tony Oros So, Oros decided to travel, which gave him new perspectives on his own musical enterprises. “Moving around helped my enthusiasm, and I now spend part of the year down in Mexico in a completely new community,” he said. “It’s funny, but it reminds me of when I came up here and people started throwing gigs at me back in ’04.” Oros’ most recent project is a Bob Seger The Silver Bullet Band tribute, Seger In Town. “It’s an exciting, full-circle thing,” he said. “Doing classic-rock covers for 30 years, the top three artists I get requested are the Eagles, Tom Petty and Bob Seger. And being a vocal mimic, Bob Seger has been one of my impressions and one of the easiest for me to do.” The idea for Seger In Town sprouted from a conversation with Oros’ buddies in Queen Nation, one of the nation’s most popular and accurate Queen tribute bands. “I had a gig with the Coverdogs up at Sundance, and Queen Nation was in town,” he said. “We were having dinner with them and my drummer, Cam (Curtis), was talking vocal technique with Greg Finsley, who is Queen Nation’s Freddie Mercury.” Oros joined the conversation. “We were talking about how some guys were just made to (perform) as certain singers,” he said. “Greg’s technique is great, and he physically was meant to sing Freddie Mercury, and then Cam turned and pointed to me and said, ‘Bob Seger.’” That struck Oros, who then said, “Let’s do the tribute.” “I did some calling around, and the core of the Seger band is my Coverdogs guys — Fab Rodig on bass and Christ Hough on guitar — who play in multiple bands in Park City,” he said. “We also have a guy and gal — Missy Lynn and Eric Mangum — who have been Dueling Pianos down at Keys on Main for 12 years in Salt Lake City. They play piano and sax and sing backup vocals. So, it’s a six-piece band.” Oros began reviewing Bob Seger tunes once he secured the band’s lineup.  “Looking at the set list, I can go, ‘This is a hit. This is a hit. This is a hit’” he said.  When Oros sees a title he doesn’t remember, he’ll find it and listen to it. “Every time when I start playing them, the muscle memory of me sitting in my dad’s Chevy Chevelle in 1982 kicks in, and I can sing every lyric, even after 42 years,” he said. Seger In Town has booked its first gig of 2027 — April 10 at the Avon Theater in Heber City. “Everyone is enthused, and we’re going to shoot our promo video on Oct. 18 before I head back to Mexico,” he said. While Seger’s music as well as tunes from other classic-rock groups has stood the test of time, Oros believes American music is at a standstill. “I think rock has had its time, and there will not be another Beatles or Elvis Presley,” he said. “I also don’t think there has been a band that has come out in the last five years that people will still know in 10 years.” That said, Oros believes new country is the United States’ current favorite. “It’s also scary that a year ago, the No. 1 country song on the charts was AI,” he said. That song, “Walk My Walk,” was generated by Aubierre Rivaldo Taylor under the name Breaking Rust, and for Taylor to easily program a bot to make the song doesn’t bode well for Oros. “Some of my peers do have income as composers, and if I had income from primarily being a composer, I’d be concerned,” he said. There is something that AI can’t replicate — a human performing live music, Oros said. And he’s performed in all situations. “I love doing real-estate open houses and hotel lobbies or playing in a corner of a hotel lobby,” he said. “And it’s fun being in a bar with a great vibe where the art for me is interacting and working the room.” While those highpoints have allowed Oros to travel the world and pay his bills, his chosen industry is still filled with lulls. Tony Oros has carved out a cover-song career over the past 22 years. Credit: Photo courtesy of Tony Oros “The challenge over the past couple of years has been the economic roller coaster of doing music as my primary income,” he said. “Having my little boutique booking agency has been eye opening because I’m seeing experiences through the eyes of the two-dozen-plus musicians.” Oros sees what the venues are paying, and he noted that some of the places he played 20 years ago are still paying artists what they paid him 20 years ago. “I understand that everybody’s hit by supply chain and all of that, but it’s interesting to navigate things through a business standpoint,” he said. Oros also sees how performers are “upping their games” so they can be paid more. “I talk with musicians up here, down in Salt Lake, in Las Vegas and L.A., and they have to rethink their price template not only every year, but sometimes every season,” he said. “You can put in a bid for a wedding and get passed on, but then do you turn down gigs that pay the same as they did two decades ago?” Oros has found regardless of what type of gig and the pay, it’s important to show gratitude.  “Having done this for a lot of years, it’s key for me to walk into every gig with that new attitude, which, in some years in the past, was hard to conjure,” he said. “I know the world’s ‘FUBAR’ right now, but I’m at the happiest place in my life, and that has taken a lot of internal work to get there.” That work included shifting his mindset. “I now look at things as if there is no bad news,” he said. “There is good news, and there is neutral news that I will learn something from.” Oros has also changed the way he approaches the unknown. “I also have decided that I’m going to look at it from a survival standpoint,” he said. “Instead, I look at it with a ‘What awesome things can happen next?’ viewpoint. That has manifested in new travels and a new band. So I want to keep it fresh and have fun with it.” Oros currently has 600 song covers in his solo repertoire and at least 1,000 more stemming from his cover bands. “My grandpa used to say, ‘Chief, I don’t understand how you remember all the words,’ but it’s like I’m still listening to and singing along to WLS in Chicago on my transistor radio at 10 o’clock at night,” he said. “I have subconsciously trained myself to what words are coming next. That’s not to say I don’t flub up every once in a while, but I do have a nice recall for that sort of thing. That makes it fun, and I don’t have to read lyrics off an iPad.” To maintain that newfound happiness, Oros has also dipped into wellness. “When I’m walking around my house and not studying music for upcoming shows, I used to put on music from my childhood,” he said. “But now, I like silence or put on some binaural beats to cleanse out all the noise. Doing live music for years, whether it’s on a live stage for a room full of screaming people with drums and amps, or playing a mellow night at a steakhouse, I’ve found there is a lot of give that requires maintenance. So, I have intentionally brought myself to a place where I can slow down all my algorithms.” Splitting his time between Mexico and Park City has also helped Oros calm his soul. “I have been spending a lot of time in Mexico doing a lot of reading and meditating, and it’s been such a lovely surprise that people asked me to play here and there when they found out I was back in town,” he said. “And when I get home from a gig, I do what I call a dismount. I do a little yoga and some meditation — better post-game habits than what I used to have.”  For information about Tony Oros and Park City Productions, visit parkcityproductions.com, facebook.com/pcpbands and instagram.com/pcpbands. 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