The Dali Lama, Nichiren Daishonin, Dick Gregory, Sir Winston Churchill, Mothers Finest, The Four agreements, Paul Weller, Patti Labelle, My Mom Eleanor James, All my Sisters, Oprah Winfrey, Humanitarians, Diane Louie, The Mists of Avalon, Aerosmith, U2, Forgiveness, Malcom and Martin, The Hollow Hills, Harry Gabriel, Tony Benn, Verve Clicquot Ponsardin, Ani DiFranco, Mary Magdalene and the courage to continue.
I didn't choose music... it chose me!
I have been singing since I was three years old, when my Great-Grandfather would take me to road side revivals in Pennsylvania and tell me to "Just sing for the people Little Johnnie."
My formative years in Detroit introduced me to Motown, then I heard Mother’s Finest and lost my mind! From that moment it was music, music, music! I soon discovered Aerosmith, and this opened the door for British Rock’n’Roll, from Robert Plant to The Rolling Stones.
I joined my first rock band, RPM, and learned the craft of performance. I soon moved to Los Angeles, and will forever be indebted to Big Nate Watts and Allen McGrier, my brothers from The Mighty D! In LA I met Gary Cambra, and formed a band which fused our mutual love of rock, soul and blues. That band rocked so hard because of the talents of Mitch Reilly, Steve Klong, Paul Mirkovich, Bob Birch and Dave Meros. The success of this band led to my meeting Marla McNally-Phillips and Linda Blum, which led to a publishing deal with Emerald Forest Entertainment. There I had the pleasure of working with Michelle White, Randy Jackson and Sam Sims. I currently continue my collaboration with Sam Sims, Bass Extraordinaire, and my other master of the bass and collaborator, Otto Williams. I have also been very fortunate to have worked with the likes of Quincy Jones, Bruce Willis, Kylie Minogue,Robert Lepage, Lorin Maazel and Stevie Wonder, to name a few!
I am now living in London, working as an actor, singer, songwriter, lecturer and ocasional ghost buster with Most Haunted, yeah I said it, ghost buster! It was always my dream to live in Great Britain, since I read 'The tales of King Arthur' and Merlin became my hero!
My first telly gig was an acoustic program for MTV/VH1 Europe, "Take It To The Bridge" This brought me to the attention of producer Tom Fredericks and DJ Allister Whitehead. Our first collaboration was "Ain't No Mountain High Enough." I went from that amazing collaboration to working with The Barkin Brothers on "I'm Gonna Catch You", K&M on ''I Got What You Need'' and ''You Plus Me'', United Souls "Wonderful World", Mark Knight on “Tonight”, Bobby and Steve on "You will Survive'' and Crispin Glover on ''Never Gonna Give You Up”, and most recently the Stanton Warriors on "Get em High".
When I wasn’t busy recording music, I did voice-overs. I am the voice of The Three Muses for The Disney film "Hercules", Poe and La La of the Teletubbies and can be heard on such CD Rom games as James Bond, Driver 1, Driver 2 and D'Arcy Stern in Urban Chaos.
I have appeared in West End musicals and dramas, made my debut at The Royal Opera House, played the blues icon Ma Rainey in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and one of my current projects is appearing as a medium on LivingTV’s Most Haunted. Starting in October I open in Hairspray as Motormouth Maybelle at The Shaftesbury Theatre. Not bad for a little chocolate doll who was born in Monongahela, Pennsylvania!
Hiya chick, how are you today? Been watching u on Living With the Dead, amazing! U r such an inspiration to us all mediums and paranormal investigators. We are just starting out, doing events for charity.Mainly Cancer research with the Mc Millan nurses in our local area. We did Dudley castle, which woz ace! Have u ever bee to the Ram Inn? We might have a slot for halloween this Oct! Cant wait! x
Hi Johnnie ;-) I'm loving living with the dead on living and I'm loving your beautiful singing voice ;-) thanks for adding me! all the best from North Wales x
