What we know today to be the band Icon and The Black Roses started when Johnny decided to start his own band in 1999. He met David, the band's former drummer and together they started “Blue Obsession”. During this period they had a hard time finding suitable elements for the band and after several people coming in and out of the band, Johnny and David decided to record a demo anyways. Together they went to Espinha, who was a good friend of Johnny's since childhood, and they started recording a demo at his place. In the meantime Luis (keyboard player) and Ana (singer) joined the band in time to record their parts in songs like “Remember” and “No More” . The demo called “4 Winter Songs” took six months to record.

Soon after the recordings were finished, the band decided to send the demo all over Europe . Later on they would sign a deal with Dark-Wings records. In the meantime, and having the demo in their hands, Sean Rose joined the band after a glamorous audition. Within months, Dark-Wings were demanding a 5 Track CD to be edited in Germany . So the band went into their own studio, which they acquired soon after signing the deal, and recorded 5 tracks (including Black Cage and Dreams and Silver Tears) mixed by Charlie Bauerfiend in Tenerife. In the meantime Sebastian was looking for a band after getting out of a Black Metal band that collapsed soon after his departure. So, he heard of Blue Obsession and decided he was the right guitar player for the band. With this new formation the band decided to call itself “ICON”.

Time went by with the band preparing their live shows but after a while our big friend David left the band and Mike Thorne replaced him (after a successful show of wrecking drumsticks). When the EP was ready, the label then decided it didn't have any commercial value as it was only a 5 tracks CD. So this EP was never released. They decided it was time to record a real album and Tommy Newton was the producer for that. So the band recorded 4 tracks in Lisbon with Tommy Newton (which included songs like Crucify you love and Angel), unfortunately there was no chance of working with him for the final production. The label picked Michael Gerlach for the production, he did it with Max Devil and the band. It was later mixed by Espinha and Max. During this process Luis left the band and Ana was dismissed. So the band took a long journey to find a new keyboard player, and the female vocals would be sung by Johnny himself whenever he had an identity crisis. Did I say long? ok it took them one week and “Adam the master of keyboards” Nox joined the band. After this love and hate stories the band decided to finally change their name to “Icon and The Black Roses", ready to spread Glitter, Metal and Roses all over the world.