The Baltimore pianist honors Chuck Berry’s legacy with a new collaboration arriving Aug. 14, ahead of an October concert celebrating the rock ’n’ roll pioneer’s 100th birthday.
Nearly 70 years after Chuck Berry helped define the sound, language and attitude of rock ’n’ roll, Josh Christina is betting that the music’s original electricity can still command a modern stage.
The Baltimore County singer, songwriter and pianist will release “Rock Revival” on Aug. 14, featuring Charlie Berry III, grandson of the late rock ’n’ roll architect. The collaboration arrives during the year that marks the centennial of Chuck Berry’s birth and will lead into an Oct. 17 tribute concert at The Collective Encore in Columbia, Maryland.
Christina developed the single as both a celebration of Berry’s songwriting and a declaration of where he believes rock music can go next. Rather than record a conventional cover, he wrote an original song populated with references to Berry’s titles, characters and storytelling traditions.
“I used titles and references from my favorite Chuck Berry songs—the ones that inspired me to become a writer,” Christina says. “People who know his music will connect with the lyrics, but new fans can hear it simply as a rock ’n’ roll song.”
Charlie Berry III’s appearance gives the project a direct familial connection to the history it honors. Christina and Berry initially met through social media before Berry traveled to Baltimore to perform with him. That appearance led to conversations about collaborating during the centennial year.
“There is no one I’ve heard who can make a guitar sound like his grandfather’s the way Charlie can,” Christina says. “He has the feel and the timing. It truly seems inherited. He brought a real rock ’n’ roll spirit to the song.”
While the recording acknowledges Berry’s unmistakable influence, Christina says he was careful to avoid treating the collaboration as a historical reenactment. “Rock Revival” is intended to place Berry’s narrative precision and rhythmic drive inside Christina’s own piano-centered sound, which draws from early rock, blues, country and R&B.
The single also reflects Christina’s growing concern about the place of artificial intelligence in creative work. Its opening lyric—“Put down the phones, turn off the AI”—frames the song as an argument for human imperfection at a moment when the music business is confronting increasingly capable generative technology.
“There is something raw and real about true rock ’n’ roll,” Christina says. “It isn’t perfect or exact, but it has a feeling and a personality that are honest. AI can give society a lot in medicine and science, but when it comes to an art form, I feel it should stay out.”
That position is consistent with the way Christina has built his independent career. He writes nearly all his music without co-writers and places live musicianship at the center of both his recordings and performances. From behind the piano, he leads the band while standing on the instrument, playing underneath it and turning its physical limitations into part of the production.
“When you front a band from the piano, you are positioned behind this giant piece of wood,” he says. “You have to make it part of the show. Older audiences may connect that energy to Jerry Lee Lewis or Elton John, while younger people are discovering something they haven’t necessarily seen before.”
Christina’s relationship with rock ’n’ roll history began when he was 7 and first heard Elvis Presley’s music in the animated film “Lilo & Stitch.” At 15, a trip to Broadway to see “Million Dollar Quartet” introduced him to the explosive stagecraft associated with Jerry Lee Lewis. Watching actor and musician Levi Kreis kick away the piano bench and leap onto the instrument convinced Christina to begin playing.
Berry’s recordings later became his entry point into songwriting.
“Chuck is probably my favorite songwriter of all time,” he says. “His lyrics were legendary. He could build an entire world around teenagers, cars, dancing and freedom.”
Christina released his first recording in 2013 and has since assembled a six-project catalog, including 2024’s “UFOs Over Phoenix” and the 2026 concert release “Live, Raw and Rockin’ in Lewes, DE!” His credits include an appearance on Ireland’s “The Late Late Show,” recording sessions at Sam Phillips Recording in Memphis and collaborations with Grammy-winning songwriter Jon Carroll and longtime Dolly Parton producer Kent Wells.
He has also presented “Piano Rock Through the Ages” aboard major cruise lines, using the concert production to trace the instrument’s role across the work of artists including Lewis, Ray Charles, Elton John and Billy Joel.
Those experiences have placed Christina in contact with musicians and family members closely tied to his influences. Daryl Davis, who performed as Berry’s pianist and bandleader, once described Christina as the artist capable of carrying the work of rock ’n’ roll’s pioneers into the 21st century. Jerry Phillips, son of Sun Records founder Sam Phillips, has praised Christina’s combination of “old-school rock ’n’ roll feel” and “current-day excellence.”
Christina acknowledges that such endorsements bring expectations.
“There is definitely some pressure,” he says. “But there is also reassurance when people who were close to these artists hear what you are doing and respond to it. I never got to meet many of my heroes, so learning from the people around them has been incredible.”
That history will converge onstage Oct. 17, when the Josh Christina Band hosts a concert commemorating what would have been Chuck Berry’s 100th birthday. Charlie Berry III and fellow grandson Jahi Eskridge are scheduled to appear alongside Davis and musicians from the Washington, D.C., region.
The show will combine Berry’s signature hits with deep cuts and stories from those connected to his career. Christina and Charlie Berry III are also expected to deliver the first live performance of “Rock Revival.”
“I want the evening to remind people how much Chuck influenced modern music and American culture,” Christina says. “Having his family and musicians who worked with him there helps bring that history to life.”
For Christina, the centennial is not an occasion to claim Berry’s legacy, but to acknowledge its reach. He points to Berry’s ability to unite audiences during the segregation era as evidence that rock ’n’ roll was always more than entertainment. Its sound influenced fashion, youth culture, language and the shape of the recording industry itself.
“Rock ’n’ roll had power,” Christina says. “People connected through the music even when the culture was trying to keep them apart. You can still feel that when you listen to Chuck Berry.”
With “Rock Revival,” Christina is proposing that the most meaningful way to honor that influence is not simply to preserve it. It is to create something new enough to keep the conversation moving.