John Michaels

When people ask me how I would describe my music, well, , it’s progressive folk, punk jazz with a twist of urban classical and industrial blues with just a slight edge of new wave rag time. Or more simply put, it’s John Rock.”

John Michaels has been writing poetry and playing music from the age of 12, not so long after doctors quit starring in cigarette commercials. His beloved mom (a singer, with Appalachian genetics) bought him an acoustic guitar, and taught him a couple of basic chords. By tenth grade he was playing in a neighborhood band called ‘Mystery’ .

‘The first guitar I played was a fairly cheap Yamaha that my mom gave me and it was a good thing that it was cheap because it died from a broken neck’.

With the good fortune to hit the road with “Mystery”, under rather mysterious circumstances when his other cronies were off studying at Universities, John shirked his deeply passionate and all-consuming goal of becoming an Entomologist (the beloved study of bugs, man! ) whose future with ‘said bugs’ was certain til he discovered girls and their inevitable question “So what do you do?”, well, he couldn’t picture a future of looking into their eyes and saying, “Hi beautiful, I’m an insect technician, would you like to see some bugs and what I do with them”??? .

With musicians girls scream and holler, pouring out lust, adoration, and desire- while insects induce shrieking and repelling in disgust and fear, begging for instant death by squashing or smashing.

Entertaining audiences from Indiana to Michigan to Iowa , Wisconsin and Minnesota covering songs by Creedence Clearwater Revival, Blue Oyster Cult, The Stones and inflecting a British accent whenever entirely inappropriate, John was restless and ready to spread his wings with a new rock band, ‘Flipit’, this time as frontman and rhythm sultan…

His Taylor 810 has been his best friend for the past eight years. Engaging and lulling audiences with his verbose wit, and a repertoire of over 40 songs he comments, “Going to hypnosis was the key. No matter what my state of mind, if I strap on my guitar, and one person enters the room it triggers a blackout, and a highly entertaining personality takes over!”

John’s live shows are invigorating and entertaining, with plenty of storytelling and audience interaction. Brian McMahon, John’s songwriting whiz-pal serving up a tasty dish of solid chemistry , matches his persona in spectacular fashion, with lyrics in songs like “Crazy Town”, “You walk a crooked line/the police chief says, ‘fine’/you’ve either just arrived/or live in crazy town!/we’re glad you came/we hope you’ll stay/we’d like to see you everyday/everyday’s another day in crazy town!

When asked what he likes to do to blow off steam, “ I like to start cars on fire, get on the back of the L train with no clothes on and a long coat and flash to unsuspecting passengers. No one seems too impressed though and I never even get a second look. ”

Defining his creative process, “Process, what process! I’m there, it comes, it happens, it goes, it comes again, it happens again, it keeps coming, I keep going, and in the end it’s a whole lot of coming and going and that’s the way it goes...or comes, depending on how one looks at it…”

On his current status in the music business, "All Over the World Nobody Knows Who I Am! I can go anywhere I want in the world and no one bothers me about autographs or taking pictures with me. In fact, the majority of them don’t even bother saying hello. It took a while to adjust to the lack of pressure that comes from not being recognized by anyone or having my music heard anywhere, but I’ve never let that change me and I never will. I’m never going to let down all those people everywhere who don’t know who I am. Without their total lack of support and complete lack of recognition I could never be what I am - A Legend in My Own Mind. So my humble thanks to everyone! I love ya, you’re all beautiful" !

Extremely well preserved with a healthy dose of sex appeal and known in his circles as a connoisseur of quirk, John Michaels is definitely an artist far too ahead of his time. Ahead of my time, are you kidding! I’ve been behind my time ever since I can remember and I don’t think I’ll ever catch up with myself.”