Born Daniel Dale Johnston, on January 22, 1961 in
Sacramento, California, as early as 9-years old, he recorded music – mostly
soundtracks to made up horror movies -
using only a $59 Sanyo boombox, singing and playing piano.
He later graduated high school in Virginia before attending
a Christian university in Texas for only a few weeks before dropping out. He
later enrolled in the art program at Kent State University. It was during those
years he recorded his album, Songs of Pain and More Songs of Pain.
Johnston started his music career in earnest when he moved
to Austin, Texas, gaining local notoriety as the eccentric who handed out tapes
of his own songs to people he met. That interested the press and attracted a
loyal following, all which attended his fervent live shows. Thought his musical
influences were The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and others, Johnston early on
realized he didn’t sing well, so his songs somehow evolved into visceral and
raw renditions of emotion, pain, and twisted experience.
His popularity rose until he was featured in a 1985 episode
of the Cutting Edge on MTV and he went on to be a favorite at music festivals,
including Woodshock, and became a favorite live performer, whether solo, with
his band, or accompanying other musicians, throughout they years.
Daniel Johnston’s mental health started to decline in the
1980’s and really took a turn for the worse around 1990, and he was eventually
diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. After a show in Austin, he
was flying back to West Virginia in a small, private two-seater plane with his
father, a former Air Force pilot. Daniel had a psychotic breakdown on the plane
in which he thought he was Casper the Friendly Ghost and proceeded to remove
the key from the plane’s ignition. His father managed to crash land the plane
among trees. Although the plane was totaled, miraculously, Daniel and his
father only suffered minor injuries. Due to that episode, he was involuntarily
committed to a mental hospital.
During his four-decade musical career, he flirted with
mainstream fame but turned it down more often than not on his own accord. His
first professionally recorded album was in New York City in 1990 with the
Shimmy-Disc label, and he later signed to Atlantic, before they dropped him a
couple of years later because his work was a flop. But Johnston’s demons may
have been his greatest appeal as a musician, leading him to eschew commercial
success. At one point, Elektra offered him a lucrative multi-album deal. But
Johnston refused to sign because Metallic was also on the Elektra label and he
was convinced that the band was actually Satan and would hurt him.
Despite his loving commitment to homemade recordings and
live performances - or because of it – Johnston became an anti establishment
hero in the music business, a totem that other musicians could respect for his
purity of artistic values.
His rock-star to the rock star fame skyrocketed around 1993,
when Kurt Cobain listed Johnston’s Yip/Jump as one of his favorite albums of
all time. Cobain often wore a t-shirt with the image from Johnston’s album, Hi,
How Are You during the promotional tour for Nevermind. With his newfound
popularity, a bidding war was underway for the right to sign Johnston. The
peculiar thing was that he was an again a guest at a mental hospital during
that time.
He did go on to make more music, contribute songs to movie
soundtracks like Kids in 1995, collaborate with many more musicians, and tour
and play live music all over the world.
His artwork - comic book crowded, disturbing sketches of
demon like humanoid creatures dripping with symbolism - also rose to fame and
were shown in museums in New York City, California, and London. His artwork and
comic books still fetch huge sums at auctions.
A well-done 2006 documentary, The Devil and Daniel Johnston,
chronicled his musical genius, artistic inspiration and alarming mental illness
and won a Director’s Award at the Sundance Film Festival.
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