Jon Dretto '20 went from small stages and viral TikToks to performing alongside a 10-time Grammy winner in just five years.
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| Jon Dretto on guitar alongside singer Chaka Khan on tour in 2025 |
Up-and-coming musician Jon Dretto ’20 considers himself the luckiest person in the world. At 27, most artists would be happy touring the country in a “transit van with a bucket in the back,” he said, but Dretto is enjoying accommodations fit for a 10-time Grammy winner.
Since May, Dretto (music/business major) has been a guitarist for legendary singer Chaka Khan, joining her band for many arena shows across the U.S. before performing in Sweden, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Spain, Switzerland — and in Rochester, N.Y., on Oct. 1. For the first tour of his career, it’s an impressive opportunity that acknowledges his skill and teaches him all the intricate details about the life he has always dreamed of living.
“It’s the little things, how we go from gig to gig and how minute by minute everything is structured,” said Dretto. “I order food to the tour bus every once in a while, because we don’t have much time. We finish a show and we have one hour until we’re on the road to the next place.”
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Dretto’s style and energy as a performer have been key to his early success. Online, he’s built a social media following of millions and is known for posting videos of himself playing guitar in unique locations, covering popular songs, or spoofing strangers by “pretending to be a beginner, then shredding.” On stage, he engages with the audience, throws picks into the crowd, swings his guitars around, and sometimes breaks them. The fact that he has been encouraged to be himself on tour with Khan and the elite musicians in her band is what he said makes this experience truly unique.
“After the show, I’ll say, ‘Chaka, I’m happy to pull it back, I’m just here to add to the show, I never want to subtract from it or encroach on your space,’” Dretto said. “And she’s cut me off and said, ‘Jon, you’re killing it man, I want more, this is who you are, go crazy.’... She’s an extremely rare case of superstar in that she has no ego at all. Whatever she can do to maximize the energy output, she’s going to do.”
Dretto’s rise has been rapid. After making a living playing gigs in clubs, bars, and on social media, he performed the national anthem at the IndyCar Grand Prix of St. Pete and the Rolex 24 at Daytona in 2025. He has also performed his own solo show at private events such as the Embassy of the Kingdom of Bahrain’s National Day Celebration in Washington, D.C. But he has pursued music for most of his life, as his father owned a music store until he was 2 and always kept instruments around the house. Throughout his teenage and college years, he built a strong local fan base through his live shows, as well as his budding social media presence. Today, he has over 1.6 million subscribers on YouTube, 3.6 million on Instagram, and 7.7 million on TikTok.
Despite his work ethic and drive, Dretto wouldn’t be able to do a gig like performing with Khan if not for his Nazareth experience, he said. Studying music theory was like “adding jet fuel to a fire that was already burning,” as it enabled him to better understand the connections between different genres, such as blues, jazz, and funk. Learning music/business enhanced his ability to promote himself, to expand and monetize his online following. Naz is also where he met his best friend and most frequent musical collaborator.
“In college, I got like three hours of sleep every night for like two years,” Dretto said. “I was in four bands, I posted sometimes three times a day, and I did my schoolwork. I took care of business when no one was looking. That’s where the real progress is made.”
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| Jon Dretto (at right) performs on campus while a student at Nazareth. |
Along the way, Dretto hired a team of people to support his success, including a manager, assistant manager, and a marketing and sales manager. They help him secure brand deals and delegate his time so he can focus on creating the music he is passionate about. Since joining Khan’s tour, Dretto has been focused on learning and absorbing all he can from his bandmates and crew members, both musically and logistically. Perks such as meeting and performing with Stevie Wonder are incredible, too.
Dretto is looking forward to another U.S. arena tour leg with Khan this coming fall. As for his long-term career aspirations, he dreams of headlining his own international tour someday and using his original music as a way to express his vocals and showcase a different aspect of his musicality beyond his guitar playing. The music is always what drives him, and the sound he wants to create is his personality coming through the speakers.
“I want to try and use guitars in a way that hasn’t really been heard in mainstream music,” Dretto said. “Huge guitars, enormous, bigger than the speakers can produce … I want to bring complex, crazy guitar parts to the general public.”
Back in March, when Khan welcomed public auditions for her new guitarist via YouTube video submissions, she wrote that she needed a “powerhouse guitarist” who can “bring the heat, the passion, and the groove to my stage.” In Dretto, it sounds like she found the perfect fit.
