Jay Johnson 

I loved the guitar. Girls loved the guitar.  I loved girls.  I had learned to  play  by  watching  my  brother  struggle.  I wanted to sing songs so I learned  to  play songs.  Lots of songs.  I played what I heard.  I learned the  words  and  I  sang.  I  played what I sang.  There was no ROCK music allowed in my house.  Late at night I would listen to Dallas ROCK stations. KZEW,  Z-97,  Q102.   Tyler radio sucked.  I`d go to sleep with that little mono  earplug (white) hidden in my ear.  I learned those songs.  I couldn`t buy  an ELECTRIC guitar so I used what I had. (David and a sling?) Mostly a gut string classical that I got for $100.  I bought a 12 string for $80 and took  the  little  strings  off  'cause I couldn`t tune it.  I played that. Daddy  took  the  guitar  away  one time.  I was playing "The Joker."  That whole "peaches and trees" thing didn`t sit too well with the principal of a private Christian High School.

Jay  Scott  Johnson  was  born  April 11, 1964, in Tyler, Texas, and by the fifth  grade  had  lived  in  San  Diego, Montana, Arizona, Tyler, Noonday, Nacogdoches  and  San Augustine, and was back on the farm in Noonday, Texas for  the  sixth  grade.  Noonday  life, in Jay's words: Four boys. Onions, potatoes,  corn, beans.  Plant and harvest.  Mom tried to grow strawberries once.

Jay  started  taking  piano lessons at age seven and has been performing or preparing  for a performance ever since.  When Jay was 13, his brother Eric started  taking guitar lessons, and Jay picked up Eric`s guitar one day and realized that he had found his instrument.

At seventeen, Jay's parents arranged for him to attend L'abri Fellowship in Switzerland,  the  study center founded in 1955 by Dr. Francis Scheaffer, a Christian philosopher and theologian.  In Jay's words:

Seventeen  found  me  on  the  tarmac  in Geneva, Switzerland with too much luggage  -  Thanks, Mom.  L`abri.  Francis Scheaffer.  Huemoz, Switzerland. You  can  only  find it if you`re looking for it.  I was looking.  I turned 18.  I  came home with longer hair and a bad habit of using long sentences that no one could follow.  Daddy knew that I had been "sinning."

That fall, a friend let Jay play during his breaks at The Pelican in Tyler. He  booked a private party and made his first fifty dollars. Jay describes the next few years thusly:

Motorcycle  wreck. Marriage. Brian Chase Johnson. Back to school. Got a job in a factory. Started gigging to make extra money.  Quit school. More money between the factory and gigging. Laura Elizabeth Johnson. Katherine Anne  Johnson. Solo,  duo,  trio,  duo,  5-piece  band. Rock and roll. Whiskey. Girls. Factory. Gig. Rock and roll. Whiskey. Girls. Factory. Gig. Rock and roll?

Divorce.

Rebecca.

Moved to Dallas.  I decided that I wanted to tell my grandkids that I was a songwriter.  So  I  started  writing songs.  Mostly bad. Nobody listened. Made  a recording. Gave it away.  Friends bought it.  Kept writing.  Still bad.  Decided to make another recording.

That  recording was Images, which received radio play for well over a year. His  next  album,  Deep In The Heart of Texas was released in 2002, and in between  those albums, Jay won the 2001 BW Stevenson Songwriter of the Year Award and the 2002 Rockzilla Awards Male Vocalist of the Year.  Jay Johnson has  an  uncanny  knack  for using his lyrics to paint mental images in the listener's  mind; drawing the listener into the music and letting their own experiences  influence  their  images.  Add some beautiful music and you've got something really special - Jay Johnson.

Buy the music here

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