He joined his first band at age 15, although at that stage the music itself may now have been the most important aspect of being in a band. That would come later though. After High school he attended the Dick Grove School of Music in Los Angeles, at first specializing in drums but later switching to vocals, songwriting and music theory. He kept playing the drums though.

In 1992 he encountered fellow musicians Neal Morse and Al Morse at a blues jam, which was the start of what would eventually become Spock’s Beard. One year later he met Kevin Gilbert, and soon became a close associate of him, lasting until Gilbert’s passing in 1996. D’Virgilio had worked close enough with Gilbert to take it upon himself to finish his last album, which Gilbert had merely started working on when he passed. And in 2000 this resulted in the album The Shaming of the True.

One year before Gilbert died, Spock’s Beard had gotten their major breakthrough with their debut effort The Light, and they were working on their sophomore effort at the time Gilbert passed away. They continued issuing popular titles for the coming years, which kept D’Virgilio rather busy. And besides his mani band, he was also brought in to be the drummer of Tears for Fears in this period, a task he has continued with to this date. At the same time he was also brought in as the drummer for what turned out to be the last studio effort by Genesis, the 1997 production Calling All Stations.