Johnny Holland was born in Dudley in the West Mindlands and still lives in the area. He started singing when he was five or six and, at that time, he had aspirations of being another Elvis or Cliff. He would regularly sing at Christmas parties at school.
He learnt to play guitar while still at school when his mother bought him his first guitar for £7.35 and, when he left at 16, he fronted a number of 60’s/70s cover bands as a singer and guitarist. He worked as an apprentice electrician at this time so his gigs were mainly local and he would just play for fun. The second of these bands was called Ice Cream Tree and Johnny was with them for a couple of years. He then moved on to Revolver and then in 1996 Snakebite, a Whitesnake tribute band. He stopped playing regularly in 2000 when he broke his leg while on stage and settled down to a ‘normal life’ getting married in his late 20s.
He and his wife divorced after 5 years and in his late 30s he was once again bitten by the singing bug and for the first time he began performing as a soloist. Initially it was just Johnny and a guitar and he refused to even use a drum machine until the late 80s as he was very keen to promote live singing. Although he has always liked Country music at this time he was still singing mainly middle of the road and covers on the cabaret and working club circuit. He rarely travelled more than 100 miles from home.
Eventually he got fed up with being a “human juke box” and wanted a change in direction. One year he went to the Notts Americana where he met Carol who had been an avid line dancer for four years. They got on well and went to a few dances together and he quickly knew that this was the music he wanted to play. In c2002 he switched to County music and immediately found the country club circuit was a lot more friendly and rewarding with a much better environment for working. He fulfilled any remaining middle of the road bookings knowing that he would never go back to it. His Country influences at that time were artists like Hal Ketcham, Travis Tritt, Alan Jackson and Toby Keith.
It was a totally different lifestyle with a lot more travelling and sleeping in the van but that didn’t worry Johnny who was now really enjoying his chosen career for the first time. Johnny has always worked as a Country soloist and wouldn’t now consider working in a band because of the economic situation. Although gigs have reduced in recent years he remains busy and has no thought of retiring any time soon.
Johnny does write some of his own songs but these are generally not included in his dance act. During his career he has released eight studio CD albums, the first was called Already Living and the others in order of release are Long Hard Road, Riding Driving Country, Riding High, Keep Country Driving On, Long Time Coming, Out Of My Car and, most recently, Trilogy.
Research by Nick Catford.