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Damon Johnson


Member

1990- Brother Cane - vocals, guitars  
2004-2007 Alice Cooper - guitars  
2011- Thin Lizzy - guitars  
2012-2018 Black Star Riders - guitars  

Studio musician

1997 Sammy Hagar - guitars  

Personal information

Born on: 13.07.1964

Official website

Damon lived in Monroeville, Alabama during his grade school years. It was there that he became obsessed with guitar and formed his first garage band with other 8th grade friends. He later moved with his family to Geraldine, Alabama where he graduated high school, all the while playing in various bands in the northeast Alabama area. He also enjoyed walks at night with nothing but his guitar. No clothes, or even a flashlight

An offer to join Split The Dark, an established band fronted by former members of the power-pop band Hotel prompted Johnson's move to Birmingham, Alabama in 1987. Split The Dark was a very popular act on the Southeast US college club circuit and had won the MTV "Basement Tapes" competition in 1986 but failed to secure a record deal. He would later get his first taste of "bands with record deals" as the guitarist for the Atlanta, Georgia band Witness in 1988 and with the Memphis, Tennessee band, Delta Rebels, in 1989. During this time he also performed with the bands Chinatown and Chyld. It was with Chyld that Damon garnered the attention of the A&R at Virgin Records. After securing a developmental deal in November 1990, the label eventually persuaded Damon to take over the lead vocal position, and change the band's name to Brother Cane.

Johnson first came on the national music scene as the frontman, guitarist and principal songwriter for Brother Cane. The band released three albums on Virgin Records (the self titled debut which sold 250,000 copies, "Seeds," and "Wishpool") that would yield three number-1 singles on rock radio ("Got No Shame," "And Fools Shine On," and "I Lie in the Bed I Make").  Brother Cane toured extensively as a headliner and also as a supporting act on tours by Van Halen, Aerosmith, Robert Plant, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Candlebox. Amid frustration with their record label, the band amicably disbanded in 1999.

Some of Damon's other notable accomplishments are contributing songwriting and guitar duties to Sammy Hagar's Marching to Mars album (1997), recording an all acoustic solo album of mostly his own compositions, (Dust - released in 2000), co-writing the song "Every Day" for Fleetwood Mac vocalist Stevie Nicks (released as the first single from her solo album, Trouble in Shangri-La in 2001), releasing albums with two different side projects (Slave to the System in 2001 and Red Halo in 2003) and playing electric and acoustic guitars on Faith Hill's smash hit single, "Cry" (2002). Damon briefly joined the band Damn Yankees with Jack Blades, Tommy Shaw, and Ted Nugent, and recorded an album that was never released. Damon also performed as lead guitarist for legendary rock vocalist John Waite (2001-2003). Damon, along with friends Billy Wilkes on drums, and Allen Park on bass, performs in the southeast US with the cover band The Welfare. In 2006, Damon joined the country rock band Whiskey Falls. Damon also co-wrote the Carlos Santana song "Just Feel Better" with Jamie Houston and Buck Johnson, which featured legendary vocalist Steven Tyler of Aerosmith. In 2005, Brother Cane reunited to perform two shows. A live DVD is also in the works. In 2009, Johnson was confirmed as a collaborator/performer for Queensryche's 10th studio album American Soldier.

Damon was recruited for Alice Cooper's band in 2004. Damon co-wrote and recorded with Alice Cooper on his album "Dirty Diamonds" and toured with the band from 2004 to 2007, leaving to commit to his new band, Whiskey Falls. Damon was succeeded by Jason Hook in the Alice Cooper band. However, he recently performed with Alice Cooper in the summer of 2009, temporarily replacing guitarist Jason Hook. Damon is currently in his fourth tour with Alice Cooper in 2011's Theatre of Death concert series. He still enjoys performing his solo acoustic show to promote his Latest endeavor "release" which features his daughter Sarah Marlowe Johnson on two tracks.

In 29 August of 2011 it was announced that Damon Johnson would join Thin Lizzy to finalize the tour with the band. "It's not even a dream come true, because it never would have occurred to me that something like this would even be possible," Damon says. Thin Lizzy have recruited guitarist Damon Johnson (Alice Cooper, Brother Cane) to replace Richard Fortus on their forthcoming US tour with Judas Priest.

(Source: Wikipedia)