Daniel Johnston
Daniel Dale Johnston (January 22, 1961 – c. September 11, 2019) was an American singer, musician and artist regarded as a significant figure in outsider, lo-fi, and alternative music scenes.[2][3] Most of his work consisted of cassettes recorded alone in his home,[5] and his music was frequently cited for its "pure" and "childlike" qualities.[6]
For other people named Daniel Johnston, see Daniel Johnston (disambiguation).
Daniel Johnston
Daniel Dale Johnston
January 22, 1961[1]
Sacramento, California, U.S.
c. September 11, 2019 (aged 58)
Waller, Texas, U.S.
- Musician
- singer-songwriter
- visual artist
- Vocals
- piano
- keyboards
- chord organ
- guitar
- drums
1978–2019
- Yip Eye Music
- Atlantic
- Stress Records
Johnston spent extended periods in psychiatric institutions[5] and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.[7][2] He garnered a local following in the 1980s by passing out tapes of his music while working at a McDonald's in Dobie Center in Austin, Texas.[8][9] His cult status was propelled when Nirvana's Kurt Cobain was seen wearing a T-shirt that featured the artpiece "Jeremiah the Innocent"[10] from Johnston's 1983 cassette album Hi, How Are You.[5]
Johnston also created visual art, and his illustrations were exhibited at galleries around the world. His struggles with mental illness were the subject of the 2005 documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston. He died in 2019 of a suspected heart attack.[11]
Early life[edit]
Johnston was born in Sacramento, California, and grew up in New Cumberland, West Virginia.[12] He was the youngest of five children of William Dale "Bill" Johnston (1922–2017) and Mabel Ruth Voyles Johnston (1923–2010). He began recording music in the late 1970s on a $59 Sanyo monaural boombox, singing and playing piano as well as the chord organ.[12]
Following graduation from Oak Glen High School, Johnston spent a few weeks at Abilene Christian University in West Texas before dropping out. He later attended the art program at Kent State University, East Liverpool, during which he recorded Songs of Pain and More Songs of Pain.[13]
Career[edit]
1980s–1990s[edit]
In 1984, Johnston took a job at McDonald's and passed out tapes in the store.[8] When Johnston moved to Austin, Texas, he began to attract the attention of the local press and gained a following augmented in numbers by his habit of handing out tapes to people he met.[14] Live performances were well-attended and hotly anticipated.[15]
His local standing led to him being featured in a 1985 episode of the MTV program The Cutting Edge featuring performers from Austin's "New Sincerity" music scene.[16]
In 1988, Johnston visited New York City and recorded 1990 with producer Mark Kramer[17] at his Noise New York studio.[12] It was Johnston's first experience in a professional recording environment after a decade of releasing home-made cassette recordings. His mental health further deteriorated during the making of 1990.[18] In 1989, he released the album It's Spooky in collaboration with singer Jad Fair of the band Half Japanese.[19]
In 1990, Johnston played at a music festival in Austin, Texas. On the way back to West Virginia on a private two-seater plane piloted by his father Bill, Johnston had a manic psychotic episode; believing he was Casper the Friendly Ghost, Johnston removed the key from the plane's ignition and threw it outside. His father, a former U.S. Air Force pilot, managed to successfully crash-land the plane, even though "there was nothing down there but trees". Although the plane was destroyed, Johnston and his father emerged with only minor injuries. As a result of this episode, Johnston was involuntarily committed to a mental hospital.[20]
Interest in Johnston increased when Kurt Cobain was frequently photographed wearing a T-shirt featuring the cover image of Johnston's album Hi, How Are You that music journalist Everett True had given to him.[12] Cobain listed Yip/Jump Music as one of his favorite albums in his journal, in 1993.[21]
Despite Johnston's having been a resident in a mental hospital at the time, there was a bidding war to sign him. He refused to sign a multi-album deal with Elektra Records because Metallica was on the label's roster and he was convinced that they were Satanic and would hurt him,[18] also dropping his longtime manager, Jeff Tartakov, in the process.[22] Ultimately he signed with Atlantic Records in February 1994 and that September released Fun, produced by Paul Leary of Butthole Surfers.[23] It was a commercial failure. In June 1996, Atlantic dropped Johnston from the label.[18]
Death[edit]
On September 11, 2019, Johnston was found dead from a suspected heart attack at his home in Waller, Texas. It is believed that he died overnight, a day after he had been released from the hospital for unspecified kidney problems.[54][55][56]
Daniel Johnston is buried at Magnolia Cemetery in Katy, Texas.[57][58]
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