Johnny western biography

“When I grow up I’m gonna be a cowboy and sing and play guitar and ride horses just like in the movies”, 5 year old Johnny Westerlund told his parents on a cold day in Northfield, Minnesota. It was October 28, 1939, Johnny’s 5th birthday and the family had just seen the movie Guns & Guitars starring Johnny’s hero, Gene Autry.

Johnny Western began playing guitar when he was 12 years old and by 13 he was playing and singing with a trio from nearby Carlton College. Hoping to get on the air, the group made a demo tape for local radio station KDHL. By the time the station manager called, the band had broken up. But it was Johnny’s voice that had caught the station manager’s attention and he was offered a 15 minute Saturday morning radio show. (The first song he sang on the air was “Ghost Riders in the Sky”.) His popularity swiftly grew and Johnny Western, now his “radio name”, was soon hosting a full hour on the Farm & Home Show, a local favorite that aired 6 days a week from noon until 1pm. That worked well for Johnny who was still going to school.

By 1954, Johnny Western was living in Hollywood trying to break into the movies. He was married, working a full-time job and had been making the round of all the studios for close to 3 years without a break in sight. He was about to give up when his luck changed. In 1956 a friend asked him to sing for a Hollywood Christian study group. Johnny’s performance that day led to a job in Autry’s band and launched his successful acting career.

Western had briefly met Johnny Cash a month after starting with Autry’s band but it wasn’t until a couple of years later(1958) while both living in Los Angeles Cash called Johnny to do 3 shows with him in CA. Western would go on to play lead guitar on all of the albums Cash recorded between 1959 and 1963. In October of 1997, just one month

Qui est Johnny Western ? Un bref aperçu de sa carrière

Découvrez Johnny Western, l'iconique chanteur-compositeur cowboy dont les mélodies nous transportent dans l'Ouest sauvage. Connu pour sa voix chaleureuse et ses compositions touchantes, Western a captivé le public avec ses interprétations sincères de la musique cowboy, évoquant l'esprit de la frontière. Avec des racines dans les genres country et western traditionnels, son influence s'étend bien au-delà de ses propres enregistrements, ouvrant la voie à une nouvelle génération d'artistes qui chérissent le son cowboy. Johnny est célébré non seulement en tant que musicien, mais aussi en tant qu'ambassadeur culturel de la musique western - un véritable raconteur qui tisse des récits à travers ses chansons.

Tout au long de sa carrière dynamique, Western a sorti des disques vinyles remarquables, dont l'album emblématique Have Gun Will Travel, qui encapsule sa connexion à la culture du vinyle. Dans un monde dominé par la musique numérique, la passion de Johnny pour la chaleur analogique du vinyle nous rappelle un temps où la musique était partagée à travers des disques tangibles, chéris par les collectionneurs et les fans. Préparez-vous à explorer le parcours fascinant de Johnny Western, une véritable légende de la musique américaine!

Les débuts de Johnny Western et son parcours

Né Johnny Westerlund le 28 octobre 1934 à Two Harbors, Minnesota, l'enfance de Johnny Western était imprégnée de la riche tapisserie de la culture américaine. Élevé dans une famille liée au Civilian Conservation Corps, il passa ses premières années à sauter entre des camps et des réserves indiennes le long de la frontière canadienne. C'est dans cet environnement sauvage que l'amour de Western pour la musique country et cowboy a fleuri. Un moment clé est survenu à son cinquième anniversaire lorsqu'il a été témoin de

American singer-songwriter

Musical artist

Johnny Western (born October 28, 1934) is an American country singer-songwriter, musician, actor, and radio show host. He is a member of the Western Music Association Hall of Fame and the Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame.

Early life

Johnny Western was born Johnny Westerlund in Two Harbors in Lake County in northeastern Minnesota but was primarily reared in Northfield in south central Minnesota.

His father was an instructor and officer in several Civilian Conservation Corps camps, where Western spent some his earlier years. He also lived on Indian reservations along the Canada–United States border.

When he was five years old, Western's parents took him to see the western film Guns and Guitars, which starred the actor/singer Gene Autry. The young boy decided he wanted to be a singing cowboy. At the age of twelve, he received a guitar. Within a year, he was performing professionally.

Musical career

Johnny Western's professional career began as a young teenager, singing and playing rhythm guitar with a collegiate singing trio. He got a job on radio at the age of thirteen, a feat publicized in Billboard as the youngest disc jockey and singer on American radio. At age sixteen, Western began performing with the Sons of the Pioneers.

He made his first professional recordings in the summer of 1952 in the studio of WCAL Radio station of St. Olaf College of Northfield, Minnesota. The six songs which resulted from those sessions were released on three singles on the local J-O-C-O label. After having played a supporting role in an episode of "Have Gun, Will Travel", Western wrote "The Ballad of Paladin" as a musical "thank-you-card" to Richard Boone.

I saw my first Gene Autry movie, Guns and Guitars, on my fifth birthday. I was hooked, and I knew right then I wanted to be a singing cowboy like Gene.

When I saw Gene Autry in the movies, I never dreamed that 17 years later, he would put me under contract and take me all over America and Canada until he retired in 1957.

My love of Western history began in my adopted hometown Northfield, Minnesota, with the legendary James-Younger Gang’s failed Northfield raid in 1876.

The first song I sang on the radio was “Ghost Riders in the Sky,” on KDHL in Faribault, Minnesota, in 1949.

My first celebrity interview on my radio show was Rex Allen Sr., who had just signed with Republic Pictures. He became my musical mentor for the next 50 years, and I ended up doing the eulogy at his memorial in Willcox, Arizona, in 2000.

Rex Allen Sr. taught me a lot about show business through the years. Two pointers he gave me early on I never forgot: “Keep your guitar in tune, and sing on key!”

My first break on TV was in 1953, when the ABC affiliate KMMT in Austin, Minnesota, offered me a six-day-a-week TV show that I did for two years.

My big break in L.A. was when Dick Jones asked me to sing at a private party. Two weeks later, Dick called me and told me that Gene Autry wanted to see me about replacing Johnny Bond on his shows. Bond had been with him for 17 years and did not want to travel anymore. Gene put me under contract, and I stayed with him until he retired at the end of 1957.

I got the idea for the song “The Ballad of Paladin” while I was on location filming an episode of Have Gun–Will Travel. The day after we finished the film, my daughter Leslie was born, March 14, 1958. I picked up my guitar and wrote the song in 20 minutes. Later that afternoon, I went to a studio in Hollywood and made three copies of it, and gave one to Richard Boone, the star of the show, and one to Sam Rolfe, the co-creator of the series. I gave it to them