by Tim Froberg
Road Trip Founder Keeps Foot on the Gas
DJ Doty never dreamed he was going to have a transformative moment when he made a road trip to Alpine Valley for a Def Leppard concert in 1988.
He was there to simply hear the music.
But the lights, special effects, stage design, sound quality, and overall production made a profound impact.
It was a show — a dazzling musical experience that inspired the young musician to always strive to make his future performances about more than just guitars, drums, and vocals. He learned on that seminal summer evening that music alone isn’t often enough. It needs to be matched with eye- and ear-catching stage elements and showmanship — both physical and technical — to truly resonate with audiences.
“My life changed in a significant way when I saw that concert,” said Doty. “It was the first concert I’ve seen that had high production value. The stage was massive, and the lights and sound that came from it made a huge impact on me. I was completely blown away.
“They opened the show with one of their early hits, ‘Bringin’ on the Heartbreak,’ and Joe Elliott did the first verse and chorus a capella. I can still remember the feeling I had at that moment — how powerful it was to me. It was like the power of music and the way they presented it was theater. I’ve been chasing that ever since. I love music, but I want to present it in a way that hopefully people will get some of the feeling I had at that Def Leppard concert way back then.”
Doty is the founder and lone remaining original member of one of the Fox Cities’ most popular and longest-running rock ‘n’ roll bands: Road Trip, which has entertained Wisconsin audiences for the last 35 years. He plays rhythm guitar and is Road Trip’s manager, handling almost every aspect of the band from overseeing production areas such as lights, video screens, computers, and sound quality to booking gigs, running payroll, and setting up and taking down equipment for shows.
Doty started Road Trip in 1991, and the band is still going strong. It does roughly 80 shows per year.
Doty is well trained for both the musical and business sides. He’s a 1994 University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh graduate with a double major in entrepreneurship and human resources. But making music and putting on a terrific show is what drives the 55-year-old Oshkosh resident.
“I still have a passion to put on a really good show that connects with audiences,” said Doty, who owns Road Trip’s technical equipment, including its lighting system and video wall. “I still, and this surprises me, love to play live music in front of people. We’ve tried over the years to improve things the best we could – not only our performance but the production side – to make the show the best it could be.”
Road Trip also consists of lead vocalists Amy Doty and Bubba Lewis, Ryan Goes (bass guitar), Matt Gieseke (drums), and Matt Weinberger (lead guitar). Amy is DJ’s wife. The two have been married for 25 years and have been together for 31.
“DJ absolutely loves music and loves running his own business,” said Amy. “He loves creating. Even when he was a little kid, he would draw these pictures of how a stage should look and how the lights should be set up. Kind of strange for a little kid, right?”
So what’s it like managing and playing in a group with your spouse, who happens to be the face of the band as its lead singer?
“It’s mostly really great,” said DJ with a chuckle. “Actually, we get to spend a lot of time together, but it can be a challenge. I don’t care who you work with; you’re not going to agree on everything. You have to work those things out. We’ve been able to make it work … not perfectly, but it works.”
Amy added: “It can be tricky, but at the same time it’s great. We do everything together, and it makes for quite the unit. It’s like we’re the same person. We both have such passion for this.”
From Air Guitars to Real Guitars
DJ grew up in Kingston, a small town in Green Lake County about an hour from Madison. He gravitated toward music at an early age.
“I had this record player that was in the form of a jukebox, I got for a Christmas gift,” he said. “I wore out several needles because I would play records all day, every day.”
Doty was so fascinated with rock ‘n’ roll in his childhood that he and his cousin, Richie Plath, entered air band competitions and won several of them.
“We got involved in air band competitions because we were already doing it for fun,” Doty said. “After a few of these, we decided to up our game. We went from tennis rackets to these fake guitars made out of wood. One of the guys’ dads, who was a carpenter, made them for us. From there, we graduated to real instruments, which we took to our air band shows.
“Then we figured, we have all these instruments, we might as well learn to play them. The next thing you know, we had started a band. Honestly, that’s how we got started. I was 12 when I first began to play music for real. It was not so good.”
“Bad Attitude” was the name of Doty’s first band, and it lasted a couple of years before he headed off to college. Plath would often visit Doty at UW-Oshkosh, and the two would jam with guitars in his dorm room.
“We’d play a few songs just sitting in the dorm room drinking beer and having fun,” Doty said. “After a while, people started coming to hear us. We thought it was great and decided to start a band. I figured I’d do this for a couple of years and then graduate college and get a real job.
“By the time I graduated, we had become popular, so I figured I would do this for a little while and see where it goes. There was never a plan to make music for any sort of income or career, but it became a career.”
Doty, who was joined by Plath as an original member, spent his early years working to build up the band’s equipment.
“The first five-plus years of the band, we didn’t pay ourselves,” he said. “We took out every cent and bought equipment with it.”
Making That Connection
Road Trip is a quality cover band that plays primarily rock ‘n’ roll, but also does country and pop songs.
“We play music that connects with our audience,” Doty said. “I’ve been at this for 35 years, and that has shifted quite a bit. Let’s say we play a Led Zeppelin song. Only a small percentage of the audience will know what that is.
“It’s not that you can’t play any older songs, but our audience knows only some of them. We pick songs we love that, if we present well, we think the audience will love. That’s kind of a moving target and can be challenging. The audience has the final vote.”
The power of music that Doty experienced at the Def Leppard concert can be felt by the veteran musician at many Road Trip shows.
“We were doing a Chris Stapleton song called White Horse at a show recently in Green Bay,” said Doty. “There was a woman sitting in front of me, and I guess it was her favorite because she was singing it right along with us. I could tell the song had meaning for her. To see her express herself like that and have that kind of moment with us, that’s what means the most to me.”
They’ve Seen It All
What’s the most unusual incident the band has experienced in its 35 years?
“There are a ton of strange things that have happened to us,” DJ said with a hearty laugh. “I remember playing at a bar in Fond du Lac, and a guy takes a gun out of his pocket and hits another guy over the head with it and knocks him to the ground.
“There were no shots fired, but it was pretty dramatic. We were pretty young at the time and didn’t know what to do, so we kept playing and eventually those guys got dragged out. Our bass player, who had seen everything from start to finish, had to go to court and testify about what exactly happened.”
Amy, who has been with the band for 33 years, has countless stories as well.
“We were playing in Madison, and I saw a lady jump off the stage and try and do the splits,” she said. “She dislocated her leg and went to the hospital. Then, she came back on crutches and danced for the rest of the show.
“Another time, somebody brought a pig on stage, and it was squealing like crazy. I remember a guy coming up on stage with a really hairy chest that had Road Trip shaved into it. We had a bunch of guys dancing while wearing nothing but Road Trip underwear.”
Doty’s passion for music is matched only by his strong Christian faith. When he’s not setting up or playing gigs, Doty is the head of the men’s ministry at Oakbrook Church in Oshkosh, where he teaches Bible study.
“I don’t have a ton of interests,” Doty said. “I love God, and I love music. That pretty much takes up all of my days.”
This article was originally published in the August 2026 issue of Appleton Monthly Magazine.
