Johnnie is self-taught on guitar and has always possessed a deep love of the blues. He can recall watching the late Tampa Red and other bluesmen perform at fish frys in his grandmother's Florida backyard...he literally grew up with the blues.
Johnnie got his professional start forty years ago with Joe Weaver and the Bluenotes, a teenage rhythm and blues band based in Detroit. They won so many local talent contests that they could no longer compete (as amateurs) and instead were hired to back up visiting artists like Big Joe Turner and Ruth Brown. Johnnie entered the Army in 1958 and oddly enough, played in a country/western band before being stationed at Fort Lewis in Tacoma, Washington.
Returning to the Bluenotes after his stint with Uncle Sam, Johnnie started playing regular nightly gigs around Detroit. This left his days open for recording sessions for Detroit's Fortune Records. The Bluenotes became the house band for Fortune, backing up their roster of artists such as Nolan Strong and the Diablos, André Williams and the Don Juans and the Five Dollards. Around this time, Johnnie appeared on the very first recording by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. He also travelled to Chicago and did several sessions for the famous Chess blues label.
Other mentionable credits include many gigs with John Lee Hooker, Lowell Fulson and a stint with the T.J. Fowler Band. Johnnie also performed with all the great R&B divas of the 50's--Faye Adams and the incomparable Dinah Washington.
The Sixties found Johnnie living and playing in Seattle, Washington where he had the opportunity of performing with TIna Turner. He also layed with Little Willie John at a strip bar/organ joint. (Johnnie had known and worked with him back when they were both Detroiters.)
Johnnie gets his clean, expressive tone on guitar from the influences of T-Bone Walker, Tiny Grimes and Billy Butler (who wrote "Honky Tonk"). Well into his recording career, Johnnie became interested in the playing technique of B.B. King and now performs several of his tunes with the Blues Insurgents, his present band.