I lived with Johnny for a few years while going to grad school in New Orleans.
I ended up in the spare bedroom of a lounge singer through that cornucopia of possibilities known as CraigsList.
I remember asking my Aunt whether this was a good idea, living with a crooner, and she emailed saying ‘it would be good for me’ and I’ve always wondered what the hell she meant by that.
But she was right.
It was great because Johnny has an entirely different take on the world. He’s one of a kind. In some ways he’s a cliche: the aged rockabilly chasing his dreams of stardom. It’s the basic pretext for Robert Duvall in 1983’s “Tender Mercies” and the same story again as Jeff Bridges in 2009’s “Crazy Heart.”
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F37ae6f4a-03e3-4382-8ddc-2f61f008fe1b_946x864.png)
But how many people have you actually met who chase their dreams as stubbornly or as openly, how many can you actually name?
Johnny is that real man, living the dream.
When I lived with him, he performed at the Bombay Club in the French Quarter.
I was able to capture him for an interview at one point in the mid-2010’s. An interview that I was very proud to get even though I knew he wouldn’t say no.
Johnny would share little details of his life from time to time when I lived with him, just little things, and they would always get my attention. He was on his way to flight school in Oklahoma to be a fighter pilot when he veered the car south to become a lounge singer in New Orleans. His wife left him one day with a post-it note on the bathroom mirror. His struggles for decades to get noticed. Having a part in major movies, in footage that got left on the cutting room floor.
Hits. Misses. Near-Misses. Near-Hits.
When I was a kid I remember meeting people like this and arrogantly thinking, “I never want to end up like this.”
Now as a middle-aged man, I enjoy meeting people like this and thinking, “I wish I had more of this incredible drive and spirit. I wish there were so many more who ended up like this.”
Johnny is a man with a soul on fire and passionate for what might be a crazy dream, but he follows it anyway. It seems almost silly to write out what an inspiration that should be to most.
In recent years Johnny moved his act from Rockabilly to Country and Western. He now performs as Helldorado.