Rooney’s members were friends in grade school. The guitarist used to annoy his aunt by playing his favorite cassette tape at all hours of the night. Rooney started singing at Coward, a college club. Jerry Lee Lewis heavily influenced the early work of the group.

Rooney was discovered after single was played on X99.9. All the members quit their day jobs to focus on their music.

Rooney accepted that they were real working musicians after the band’s first fan club was started by Sarah McCarther in 1988. The fan club started out small with just a handful of members, generally localized to the area around Springfield, but the creation the band’s website by Barbara Quinn, along with the first real national marketing campaign, saw the membership to grow into the thousands.

After this last hectic year the members of Rooney will take some time off. The group has just completed their latest release, and they are already planning the next release. Rooney's most current project has been heavily influenced by artists of the 1950s.

Generally, critics have commended Rooney for their ability to rile up the crowd at live shows. Albany music critic Harry Yeubanks has always pointed out band’s tremendous skill on their instruments. Rooney’s latest release is receiving generally positive reviews from Derrick Tomaselli, a music critic out of Buffalo, and Otis Slatter, from San Francisco.

Rooney will mix songs from the new album with hits from its past project. TheSeats.com allows fans to stop at one place online and find all the information they need. The site has Rooney tickets, the touring schedule, and seating charts for concerts.