On our Journey of greats we also found the Dream Boy Johnny O. and here is what he told us...
Tell us about your up bringing?
I was born in Brooklyn, New York around the "Flatbush Ave," area. Later in life I moved to different parts of Brooklyn, but New York was my life. I grew up in a loving but dysfunctional family, I guess a pretty typical American family who looked out for each other and protected one another from outsiders. But was self destructive within it's ranks. My grand parents raised me most of my life, because my father left me at an early age when I was just days old, And my mother well lets just say she wasn't mature enough to handle me at the time. There were good memories and then there were bad memories which caused me to grow up very quickly.
At an early age I useto pretend to be a super star singer. I use to close the bedroom door play my cassettes or turn on the local radio station while standing in front of a full size mirror. Pretend to be in front of thousands of people and I was the star. Music became my escape from reality and pain!
How did you get discovered?
A friend of mine, who worked for my uncle at a bar started messing with artist development. We were all good friends at the time. But I started seeing fancy cars and money everywhere. So I thought maybe I should ask what is the deal around here? To my surprise he had gotten involved with the music industry and the record producing side, Now understand this, I have never sang in front of the gentlemen ever not even happy birthday, lol, So when I mentioned I could sing, he immediately thought I wanted to jump on his band wagon for a ride, To his surprise when he did give me the opportunity to audition he was amazed. Later that day he gave me a cassette which I heard and loved the track. I wrote the song on the train ride home... That's when I wrote "Fantasy Girl."
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