Joey was born in New York City on August 13, 1960. His father was a bricklayer. In the late sixties, Joey’s family moved to Chicago where his father could find work and make better money. At the age of seven years old, Joey's Uncle Johnny introduced him to the guitar.
After graduating from high school, Joey trained with Lee Strasberg at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. He also studied improvisation in a six month program in Chicago at the Second City Training Center. Later, he trained with Dee Caruso, an American television and film screenwriter and television producer, at UCLA.
Joey was discovered in 1982 at the age of twenty one. His father was laying bricks at the Campbell's Soup Factory and bragging about him. One of the female employees who was a relative of Miles Davis heard him. She asked Joey's father to give her a cassette tape of Joey singing. A few days later Miles Davis, along with a producer and his musicians met with Joey and his family. They signed Joey and for the next three years he toured with Miles as a background singer and keyboard programmer.