Tom Johnston

At 75 years old, Tom Johnston physical status not available right now. We will update Tom Johnston's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

Charles Thomas Johnston (born August 15, 1948) is an American singer.

He is a guitarist and singer best known for his work as a founder, guitarist, lead vocalist, and songwriter for the Doobie Brothers as well as his own solo career.

He has been playing off and on with the Doobie Brothers for more than 40 years, in many styles.

Personal life

Diane and Johnston now live in northern Marin County, California, with their son Johnston. Lara Johnston, his daughter, is a singer-songwriter. She has performed openings for KISS and Heart, as well as as a back-up vocalist for Don Henley and Belinda Carlisle. She appeared on MTV's Rock the Cradle in 2011 and was a 2011 participant in American Idol. Christopher Johnston, Tom Johnston's uncle, lives and works in Marin.

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Musical career

Johnston is best known for his lead guitar and vocal appearance in The Doobie Brothers, as well as his creation of his own acoustic guitar style, blending a distinct strum and percussive accented rhythm on a single device. This style, interwoven with melodic hammer-ons, gave Johnston his first signature sound in popular 1970s rock music. All of the rhythm pieces behind "Long Train Runnin" and "Listen to the Music" were created first for an acoustic guitar and then re-applied on a hybrid guitar in a similar manner.

Johnston was born in Visalia, California, and he was born in 1964. Little Richard, Bo Diddley, Elvis Presley, James Brown, and other rhythm and blues artists featured on the radio in the 1950s were among his top musical influences during his youth. At the age of twelve, Johnston took up guitar after brief school stints with the saxophone and clarinet. "I started out [on] the clarinet at seven years old," he said, and I've been doing it for eight years. I played the saxophone, drums for a year and a half, and started playing guitar when I was in seventh grade. That was a bit of a rebellion/image journey. I felt at home on the guitar, but not so much. I adored the saxophone and played tenor and baritone on tenor and baritone. However, I regretfully, when I first got the clarinet, I hung up all of the reed instruments and started playing guitar, and I never touched them again. At home, I learned guitar and a little piano. On the first album, The Doobie Brothers, I played piano, and on a few others, I played a little harmonica." He appeared in a variety of bands, including a Mexican wedding band that performed half soul and half Latin music in his early career. His obsession with rhythm and blues led to his performance in a soul band from a neighboring town and later, his own blues band.

Johnston left San Jose to finish college and began playing in bands around town. Skip Spence, a former drummer with Jefferson Airplane and guitarist/founding member of a band that had a major influence on The Doobie Brothers, Moby Grape, was on display. Spence introduced Johnston to John Hartman. Johnston, a graphic design art major at San José State University, grew up to 285 South 12th Street, which was a cultural center for San Jose at the time. "It didn't matter if they were playing B-3 or drums, guitar, bass, or horns, they all ended up in our basement," Johnston recalls. Pud, Johnston and Hartman's new band, with Greg Murphy on bass. Pud performed at several clubs in and around San Jose, including the Golden Horn Lounge (which no longer exists) in Cupertino, California. Pat Simmons was a coworker here. Hartman and Johnston lived in the 12th Street apartment for about four years; whenupon Dave Shogren joined them to replace Greg Murphy and Pat Simmons, they had the nucleus of a new band, and Pud lost the Doobie Brothers.

During much of his first seven-year and six-album album, Johnston wrote and performed many of The Doobie Brothers' early hits, including "Listen to the Music," "Weston Road, Another Sunday," (#22 Billboard Hot 100 Hit), "All About the Music" (#12 Billboard Hot 100 Hit), and "Eyes of Silver" (#52 Billboard Hot 100 Hit). He also performed "Take Me in Your Arms" (1975), the #111 Billboard Hot 100 Hit Song (written by Holland-Dozier-Holland).

The British music magazine NME announced in December 1973 that Johnston had been arrested in California on suspicion of marijuana possession. However, following years of travelling lifestyles and health concerns regarding stomach ulcers that had been a problem since high school, Johnston became seriously ill on the eve of a major tour that began in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1975 to promote Stampede. Johnston's illness was so precarious that he needed emergency hospitalization for a bleeding ulcer. With Johnston's season coming and the tour still underway, fellow Doobie Brother Jeff Baxter suggested that a fellow Steely Dan alum fill the hole. Michael McDonald, the band's lead singer, was recruited on an emergency basis. Johnston, who was back in the band for a brief period, performed one original song to Takin' It to the Streets ("Turn It Loose") and also contributed a vocal cameo to Pat Simmons' song "Wheels of Fortune." He appeared on live at the Winterland in San Francisco this year (appearing in a concert that year at Winterland in San Francisco, excerpts from which appear on VH1 Classic are occasionally), but he was forced to restraint once more in the fall. Although Johnston had written and the band had recorded five of his compositions for the album, none of his songs appeared on Livin' on the Fault Line. Johnston had his songs and left the band he co-founded before Fault Line was announced (though he was credited with guitars and vocals and was included on the album's inner sleeve band photo). Following a few years of regained fitness but also growing in musical direction, Johnston left the band in 1977 to pursue two albums with Warner Bros: "Savannah Nights" (#34 Top 100 Billboard Hit #1980).

With the Tom Johnston Band, which featured fellow Doobie John Hartman on drums, Johnston toured in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 1982, Johnston reformed the band for a farewell tour concert, after which The Doobie Brothers stopped performing as a band for the next five years.

In 1985, Johnston traveled through US clubs with a group called Border Patrol, which also included former Doobies Michael Hossack and briefly Patrick Simmons. This group appeared on tour but never recorded. "Where Are You Tonight," he performed on the Dirty Dancing soundtrack in 1987.

When Johnston and the Doobie Brothers reunited for a brief tour in 1987, they met with them for a short tour. With Johnston returning to co-founder Simmons, the band's permanent revival was triggered. To the group's last major chart hit, "The Doctor" (from 1989's Cycles), Johnston co-wrote, arranged, and contributed a signature guitar solo to the group's last major chart hit, "The Doctor." This was followed by Brotherhood in 1991, which featured four songs by Johnston, and Sibling Rivalry in 2000, which featured the single "People Gotta Love Again." The Doobies' new album, 2010's World Gone Crazy, features 13 songs, eight of which were written by Johnston, including the album's title track and the band's first single "Nobody," a rerecording of the band's first single in 1971.

Our Story of The Doobie Brothers (2022) by Pat Simmons, Johnston.

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