John was born on October 26, 1951, in Poughkeepsie New York. He and his family moved to Lexington Kentucky in 1957. In 1964, John got his first Guitar and soon after was playing in bands with friends around his neighborhood. In 1970, John went to the University of Kentucky to major in stand-up Bass but soon realized that he was thinking in terms of melody, "I knew that if I was going to work I needed to find a melody instrument." John had already begun playing the Lap Steel in addition to Bass guitar so the move to Pedal steel seemed logical. John practiced day and night, brought his guitar home every night from a job, and listened to as much steel as possible. "Some of his early influences were Don Helms, Buddy Charlton and of course the master at being commercial Mr. Pete Drake."
John played throughout the United States and Canada with many groups including his own "Second Hand Rose," which played at the DJ Convention in 1974 at the "Peavey Room, King of the road hotel," and the "Grand Ole Opry 50th Anniversary" radio show. Earlier in 74 John auditioned to be one of the first steel players at Opryland, John passed the audition but decided to work with his own group on his own projects. In March 1979 John left for Brussels, Belgium to tour with various groups. In 1980 John moved to Germany, and in 1981 moved to West Berlin where he played with the group "Western Union." WU Released 3 albums and 7 singles and were two time winners of the prestigious Marlboro Competition for West Germany, John toured throughout Europe with “Western Union.” In 1983, John was the featured Steel Guitarist for Germany's first Steel Guitar Seminar. While in Europe John expanded his talents to include playing the Flute and Saxophone.
In 1985 John returned to the USA and immediately moved to Nashville. In Nashville John worked at the World Famous Stockyard/Bullpen Lounge playing the Steel Guitar, Saxophone, Flute, Dobro, and contributing vocalist from April of 86 till November of 95. While John was at the Stockyard many artists came by to sit in with the band, those included Jerry Lee Lewis, The Beach Boys, Reba McEntire, The Everly Brothers, Lorrie Morgan, The Kentucky Headhunters, Rick Astley, Steppenwolf's John Kay, Travis Tritt, Shania Twain, and many others. In 1991 John took a three month leave of absence from the Bullpen lounge to play sax with "Hank Williams Jr." on his “Lone Wolf Tour.”
In 1999, John recorded saxophone at the famous "Fame Studio's," in Muscle Shoals,
Alabama with "Wayne Jackson," the Trumpet/leader of the "Memphis Horns," on a session for the famous country group "ALABAMA," with producer "Rick Hall". This studio is where all the "Stax Records" songs such as, "Knock On Wood," "Dock Of The Bay" and "Soul Man" and many more were recorded and produced.
John stays busy working as a studio musician in Nashville, his talents on the Steel Guitar, Saxophone, Dobro and Flute, give him a musical range that allows him to move easily from Country, to Jazz to Pop. John is the staff Steel Guitarist for the renowned "Gene Breeden Studios," on Music Row.
On September 10, 2002 John was presented a custom “EXCEL” Steel Guitar built by Mitsuo Fujii, President and Owner of the "Fuzzy Steel Guitar Products Company," in Tokyo, Japan. John considers it a great honor to be presented this beautiful guitar and Full Endorsement! from the makers of such a high quality instrument.
John stays busy working as a studio musician in Nashville, his talents on the Saxophone, Flute, and Steel Guitar give him a musical range that allows him to move easily from Jazz to Pop to Country. John is a staff musician for the renowned Gene Breeden Studios," on Music Row. John continues to do stage work with such groups as Radio Daze Big Band, artist’s showcases and special events.
John is the featured saxophonist and flutist on TG Shepard’s new CD project “Timeless.” BJ Thomas’s new CD project features John as a soloist. John played Steel Guitar for Tyler Deans ( Ronnie McDowell’s son )new CD project for CURB Records. Recently John played Sax with Wayne Jackson on 3 tunes that Louis Armstrong had done for Jack Clement just before he died.
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