Early Influence
It is really no surprise that John would pursue a creative outlet for expressing his life experiences through songwriting. His father, Country Johnny Mathis, was a successful singer/songwriter in his own right with cuts by George Jones, Tammy Wynnette, Johnny Paycheck, Charlie Pride, Ray Price, Johnny Horton and even Elvis Costello (just to name a few) and the fact that he was raised on “old Country”, this would be the natural choice for expressing John's perspective on life.
Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and taken across the border to his father's home state of Texas soon afterward, John was raised with much of the standard Southern traditions. A whole lot of church, including a lot of time playing piano with his father and brothers for congregational worship, and a whole lot of listening to those long playing LP's and spinning 45's of old Country tunes.
John's life and musical influences would eventually lead him into spending a number of years working in the Southern Gospel Music industry in the areas of songwriting, publishing, publicity and A&R. Several of those years were spent working with Homeland Entertainment, label home for such renowned Southern Gospel artists as The Cathedrals, The Speer Family and The Florida Boys.
Songwriting
Songwriting is John's first love, a passion he naturally received from his father. During his tenure in Southern Gospel, John had the opportunity to write with many notable songwriters and garnered numerous cuts by some of Gospel's legendary groups.
John is now focusing much of his time and efforts on his main passion, songwriting. He is writing his own brand of Country Music and performs at songwriter venues where he showcases his dad's songs as well as his own songs. In 2007, John's home video performance of his song, "He Man Womans Haters Club" landed him among the Top 64 finalists in CMT's March Madness Video Competition 2007 (CMT.com).
John and resides in Brentwood, Tennessee (south of Nashville) and continues to write from his experiences and perspectives on life and tries to have a little fun doing it!
