Silence (John Mayes, Benjamin Gaither, Louie Denslow, Jason Robinson and Sonny), regularly sold out venues in the DC Metro area including the "Bayou" in Georgetown.

While with Silence, he released a nine track CD, Vision, and recorded a three song tape with Alex Perialas (who produced Anthrax, Overkill, S.O.D., etc.).

On January 19, 2005, he got a call from Morgan Rose to join Sevendust after Clint Lowery left for Dark New Day.

In 2011, Mayo engineered and co-produced Ugly Kid Joe's Stairway to Hell album then joined the band in 2012 as touring guitarist, filling in for Dave Fortman.

In June 2014, Sonny joined Wesley Geer in the non-profit organization, Rock to Recovery, which harnesses the healing power of music by bringing musical instruments and equipment in to treatment facilities to write and record original songs with people recovering from drug/alcohol addiction, PTSD, eating disorders, and other illnesses.