About Johnny Reid
“What is a guy from Scotland doing living in Nashville, writing and singing country music?” Johnny Reid would like to have a dollar for every time he has heard that question, but to him the connection doesn’t seem so strange. After all, where did country music come from? If the music of the Appalachian Mountains gave birth to what became country, then it was the Scottish and Irish immigrants who settled there that got the ball rolling.
Johnny Reid was born in Glasgow, Scotland by the banks of the river Clyde, and lived there until age 17. He started singing when he was “just a wee boy” and was performing in pubs long before he was old enough to be a customer. He would mix traditional Irish and Scottish folk music with other tunes he picked up from his parents’ collection. His father listened to the style of country music that was popular at the time: people like Charlie Rich, Conway Twitty, and Charlie Pride. From his mother he picked up a love of soul with performers like Etta James, Wilson Pickett, and Chuck Berry. On his own he discovered the vocal extremes of Andrew Strong and Joe Cocker.
“I never wanted to be anything but a singer and entertainer,” Reid explains, “so I figured out over time that I needed to spread my wings and take Scotland to the rest of the world.” He moved to Canada when he was 17 and became an all-star soccer player while at high school in Brampton, Ontario. One day the head football coach of Bishop’s University approached him after a match and asked him if he had ever kicked an American football. Reid said no, but he’d be willing to give it a try. “The coach invited me to come over to their practice field, I kicked a football for two days, and ended up getting the job.”
Reid played varsity football for the university for four years, but got a sign one day that sports was not where his future lay. He was used to playing soccer or football during the day, then going out to play music in the local bars at night. During his last year of college, the coach came roaring through the locker room, screaming at the players about the mess and the dirty lockers. He opened and slammed the lockers one by one, raving about sweaty clothes, dirty uniforms and old gym socks that hadn’t moved in months. “When he got to my locker,” Johnny explains, “he stopped dead in his tracks and just stared, speechless. Then he yelled, ‘A guitar? What the &*%# is a guitar doing in here?’ I think that one moment captured my priorities in a flash.”
After graduation, Reid toured extensively across Canada and built up a stable of original songs. He realized early on, however, that he needed to spend time in Nashville to take the next step. For about seven months, he went back and forth between Canada and the US, driving 18 hours each way just to spend a week writing and making contacts. Then he would drive straight back and return to a construction job—the only job that would allow him to take off when he needed to go.
When his overworked car finally rebelled, he and his wife and baby packed up their life and headed south to Nashville. The three of them moved into a small one bedroom apartment and Reid starting working in earnest.
“I struggled for quite a while after that,” Reid explains. Then, out of the blue, he got a call from Nashville publishing company Encore Entertainment who had heard some of Johnny’s material and wanted to meet with him. Encore brought Reid into their offices, handed him a guitar, and asked him to play a few songs. “After three songs,” says Reid; “they asked me what else I was doing and if I had any deals in progress. I put on a brave face, but told them that we were about two weeks away from giving up our house.” Encore asked Reid what his monthly expenses were, and then wrote him a check that would cover six months of bills. Reid soon signed a four-year publishing deal with Encore Entertainment.
Johnny’s debut album Born to Roll will be released on Open Road Recordings in Canada on March 8. The first single from the album, the infectious “You Still Own Me”, was in the top 15 at country radio while the video reached the top 5 at Country Music Television. Second single “Sixty to Zero” is sure to be just as successful.
Those Scottish pubs where Johnny Reid performed as a child are still hosting his music, but now on video or CD. “I send everything I record over to my relatives in Scotland. My uncles take them down to the local pub to play. There’s a lot of love in Scotland.” He likens himself to those Scottish immigrants who crossed the ocean a couple hundred years ago and settled down in the mountains of Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee. “I can relate to taking a chance like that, packing up all your belongings and moving away from everyone you know, just to attain your goal. I’m still representing my homeland, but changing the recipe a wee bit.”
Johnny Reid was born in Glasgow, Scotland by the banks of the river Clyde, and lived there until age 17. He started singing when he was “just a wee boy” and was performing in pubs long before he was old enough to be a customer. He would mix traditional Irish and Scottish folk music with other tunes he picked up from his parents’ collection. His father listened to the style of country music that was popular at the time: people like Charlie Rich, Conway Twitty, and Charlie Pride. From his mother he picked up a love of soul with performers like Etta James, Wilson Pickett, and Chuck Berry. On his own he discovered the vocal extremes of Andrew Strong and Joe Cocker.
“I never wanted to be anything but a singer and entertainer,” Reid explains, “so I figured out over time that I needed to spread my wings and take Scotland to the rest of the world.” He moved to Canada when he was 17 and became an all-star soccer player while at high school in Brampton, Ontario. One day the head football coach of Bishop’s University approached him after a match and asked him if he had ever kicked an American football. Reid said no, but he’d be willing to give it a try. “The coach invited me to come over to their practice field, I kicked a football for two days, and ended up getting the job.”
Reid played varsity football for the university for four years, but got a sign one day that sports was not where his future lay. He was used to playing soccer or football during the day, then going out to play music in the local bars at night. During his last year of college, the coach came roaring through the locker room, screaming at the players about the mess and the dirty lockers. He opened and slammed the lockers one by one, raving about sweaty clothes, dirty uniforms and old gym socks that hadn’t moved in months. “When he got to my locker,” Johnny explains, “he stopped dead in his tracks and just stared, speechless. Then he yelled, ‘A guitar? What the &*%# is a guitar doing in here?’ I think that one moment captured my priorities in a flash.”
After graduation, Reid toured extensively across Canada and built up a stable of original songs. He realized early on, however, that he needed to spend time in Nashville to take the next step. For about seven months, he went back and forth between Canada and the US, driving 18 hours each way just to spend a week writing and making contacts. Then he would drive straight back and return to a construction job—the only job that would allow him to take off when he needed to go.
When his overworked car finally rebelled, he and his wife and baby packed up their life and headed south to Nashville. The three of them moved into a small one bedroom apartment and Reid starting working in earnest.
“I struggled for quite a while after that,” Reid explains. Then, out of the blue, he got a call from Nashville publishing company Encore Entertainment who had heard some of Johnny’s material and wanted to meet with him. Encore brought Reid into their offices, handed him a guitar, and asked him to play a few songs. “After three songs,” says Reid; “they asked me what else I was doing and if I had any deals in progress. I put on a brave face, but told them that we were about two weeks away from giving up our house.” Encore asked Reid what his monthly expenses were, and then wrote him a check that would cover six months of bills. Reid soon signed a four-year publishing deal with Encore Entertainment.
Johnny’s debut album Born to Roll will be released on Open Road Recordings in Canada on March 8. The first single from the album, the infectious “You Still Own Me”, was in the top 15 at country radio while the video reached the top 5 at Country Music Television. Second single “Sixty to Zero” is sure to be just as successful.
Those Scottish pubs where Johnny Reid performed as a child are still hosting his music, but now on video or CD. “I send everything I record over to my relatives in Scotland. My uncles take them down to the local pub to play. There’s a lot of love in Scotland.” He likens himself to those Scottish immigrants who crossed the ocean a couple hundred years ago and settled down in the mountains of Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee. “I can relate to taking a chance like that, packing up all your belongings and moving away from everyone you know, just to attain your goal. I’m still representing my homeland, but changing the recipe a wee bit.”
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