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By his teens, his tastes were changing from Country to what he describes as his “rock phase” and when he was 13 he wanted to buy an electric guitar from a friend and join his friend’s band but his dad refused to let him buy it. As an act of rebellion, he bought himself a half size guitar from Argos for £30 on his 14th birthday and taught himself to play. He has been playing ever since but his teenage ambition to play in a rock band never came to fruition and he ended up joining the army. 
While serving in the army in Canada in the late 1990s he heard Garth Brooks for the first time and this instantly changed his outlook on life as he knew then that he wanted to perform Country music. Since then, he has been an avid listener and learner of songs by some of the greats of Country. It would, however, be a long time before he would achieve his ambition.
After leaving the army in 2001 he worked as a Bingo manager for Gala and then worked with deaf children in schools were he learnt and is still fluent in British Sign Language. He then became a long distance lorry driver and in the summer of 2019 he went with his daughter for an evening out at the Nashville Sessions Country club in York. He told the people there of his ambition to be a Country singer and was given a short spot singing three songs at their Christmas function.  This he did, using backing tracks he had downloaded onto his phone.  He clearly impressed and was given his first solo gig the following September. Chris performed as Chris ‘Johno’ Johnson; Johno being his nickname in the army. Steve Hanks was in the audience and asked him for a card. Chris had to explain that he wasn’t actually a working Country singer and had never done a Country gig. 
The following year covid arrived in March followed by lockdown so the September gig didn’t happen. During lock down, he learnt a lot of songs, started writing songs and did some live streaming for Nashville Sessions. Once lockdown was over and clubs started to reopen, Steve Hanks offered Chris a 30 minute slot at his Shanksville club in Doncaster where he played between two Darren Busby sets. He quickly impressed with his rich Country voice and he was approached by someone in the audience who suggested he should contact Zenne Kober as he would be “perfect for one of her festivals”.
The word got round very quickly and Chris’ diary was soon filling up. He would like to thank Steve Hanks and Zenne Kober, also Sam Marshall and Kriss Jacobs of Nashvillle Sessions Country club, for helping to launch his solo career. With 3 or 4 gigs a week in summer 2023 Chris gave up his day job as a civilian driving instructor for the Defence School of Transport and become a fully pro Country singer. One of his own songs ‘One mile at a time’ was released as a single on Amazon Music in March 2023.