YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Dominic J. Tocco Jr., one of the Mahoning Valley’s longest-running and most popular musicians, died Friday after a battle with cancer.
Tocco, who was 77, started performing in 1963, when he was still in high school.
A native of Youngstown’s Brier Hill neighborhood when it was a center of Italian American life, Tocco was a smooth singer who played countless festivals and events.
Most special to him was the Brier Hill Festival on the North Side. Tocco headlined the main set every year on Saturday night and also the closing set the next day.
In 2013, he was named man of the year at the event.
Tocco attended the Rayen School and then graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School, both in Youngstown, in 1965.
He entered the military after high school and served in the Vietnam War for 14 months, returning with numerous commendations. As a seventh-degree black belt in martial arts, he also trained Special Forces units in hand-to-hand combat and survival techniques.
After returning from Vietnam, Tocco – who earned a business degree at Youngstown State University – would go on to hold top-level offices with the Teamsters. He worked with the local, state and international branches of the union.
In a 2013 interview, Tocco said one of his most memorable moments was being asked by Jimmy Hoffa, Teamsters president, to sing the national anthems of the United States and Canada at a Teamsters convention before 11,000 people in attendance.
It was during this time that he changed his band’s name to The Brotherhood. The act performed countless gigs over the decades, sometimes six or seven a week during its heyday.
He loved growing up in Brier Hill and never forgot what life was like there. When he returned to the neighborhood each year for the fest, he would find the empty plot of land where his family’s house once stood.
“My mom and dad were both from Italy, and in those days, that’s where they all ended up,” he said in the 2013 interview. “We were like a big family. We never locked our doors. … Everyone watched out for each other, and many of us were related. Only families that lived on Brier Hill will ever experience the closeness we had for each other.”
The Brier Hill Festival today is run largely by Dom Modarelli Jr. He and the other event organizers have not made firm plans to honor Tocco yet but are thinking of saluting him in the near future – possibly at next year’s fest.
“He was our act for 33 years,” Modarelli Jr. said. “He played every Saturday night and then was our closer every Sunday night.”
The last time Tocco played the fest was about four years ago, Modarelli said. Afterward, his health problems began. Although he was diagnosed with cancer in 2023, he would still attend the fest to talk to people.
“He loved Brier Hill,” Modarelli said. “He was Brier Hill. That was his festival. He put it on the map, and nobody will ever be able to take his spot. He couldn’t wait for it to return every year. The people [that go to it] surely miss him.”
Modarelli recalled watching Tocco dancing on the tables in the festival’s music area during his performances.
While the Brier Hill Festival was launched in 1992 as a one-time affair, it proved to be so popular that it became an annual event.
It now draws roughly 20,000 people over its whole weekend each year, Modarelli said – citing Tocco’s presence as a major reason for the huge crowds at night.
“On the nights he performed, you couldn’t even move,” he said. “People would park on Belmont Avenue and walk down.”
Joey Naples is a lifelong friend of Tocco’s who also grew up on Brier Hill. He has been a Brier Hill festival organizer since it started and recalled how much fun attendees had when Tocco played.
“They just didn’t want to go home,” Naples said. “And sometimes I think [Tocco] didn’t want to go home either. He and his band would play for 20 minutes longer than they had to before they’d call it a night – Saturday nights in particular.”
Rex Taneri is another longtime Valley musician. He’s also president of the American Federation of Musicians Youngstown chapter, of which Tocco was a lifelong member.
“He was a true champion,” Taneri said of Tocco. “He served in Vietnam, two tours I think, in the Special Forces. And [afterward], he was a true talent who paved the way for a lot of us [in the entertainment field].”
Tocco also “believed in what we stood for” as a musicians union, Taneri said.
Tocco leaves his wife of 53 years, Maria Annette; two sons, Dominic III and Giovanni; multiple grandsons and granddaughters; and a sister, Delores.
Calling hours for family and close friends will take place from 5-8 p.m. Thursday at Rossi Brothers and Lellio Funeral Home, 4442 South Ave., Boardman.
To read Tocco’s obituary, click HERE.