John Doe (musician)

John Doe
Background information
Birth name John Nommensen Duchac
Born (1953-02-25) February 25, 1953
Decatur, Illinois, United States
Origin Los Angeles, California
Genres Roots rock, alternative country, folk rock, punk rock
Occupation(s) Musician, actor, poet, bass player, songwriter, guitarist
Instruments Bass guitar, guitar, singing
Associated acts X, the Flesh Eaters, the Knitters, Eddie Vedder, Jesse Dayton
Website theejohndoe.com

John Nommensen Duchac (born February 25, 1953),[1] known professionally as John Doe, is an American singer, songwriter, actor, poet,[2] guitarist and bass player. Doe co-founded LA punk band X, of which he is still an active member. His musical performances and compositions span rock, punk, country and folk music genres. As an actor, he has dozens of television appearances and several movies to his credit, including the role of Jeff Parker in the television series Roswell.

In addition to X, Doe performs with the country-folk-punk band the Knitters and has released records as a solo artist. In the early 1980s, he performed on two albums by the Flesh Eaters.[3]

Career

Music

Doe moved to Los Angeles, California, and in 1976 met guitar player Billy Zoom through an ad in the local free weekly paper, The Recycler.[4]

John Doe Performs at Adams Avenue Street Fair, San Diego, 2006

As a musician with X, Doe has two feature-length concert films, several music videos, and an extended performance-and-interview sequence in The Decline of Western Civilization, Penelope Spheeris's seminal documentary about the early-1980s L.A. punk scene.[5]

Along with co-writer Exene Cervenka, Doe composed most of the songs recorded by X. Wild Gift, an album from that band's heyday, was named "Record of the Year" by Rolling Stone, The Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times. With Dave Alvin, he co-wrote two of the songs on the Blasters' 1984 album Hard Line, "Just Another Sunday" and "Little Honey". He also wrote "Cyrano de Berger's Back" for the Flesh Eaters LP A Minute to Pray, a Second To Die.

Since 1990, Doe has recorded nearly a dozen albums as a soloist or in collaboration with other artists, and has contributed tracks to motion pictures. In the 1992 movie The Bodyguard (starring Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston), it is Doe's version of "I Will Always Love You" that plays on the jukebox when Costner's and Houston's characters are dancing. It was released on audio cassette by Warner Bros. in September 1992, but no version is believed to exist on CD. He co-wrote and played on the song "Lobotomy" with Tyler Willman for the eponymous 1998 debut studio album of the band Calm Down Juanita.[6]

Doe took part in Todd Haynes's 2007 movie I'm Not There, recording two Bob Dylan covers, "Pressing On" and "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine." Both recordings were included on the film's soundtrack, and the former was prominently featured in the film, with Christian Bale (as Pastor John Rollins) lip-synching Doe's vocals. Doe recorded the song "Unforgiven" in 2007 with Aimee Mann on A Year in the Wilderness, an album which also featured Kathleen Edwards, Jill Sobule, Dan Auerbach. He then joined with Eddie Vedder on a mix of the song "Golden State" in 2008. "The Meanest Man in the World" by Doe was featured in Season 4 of the television series Friday Night Lights and included on the second soundtrack album. Country Club (2009), featuring Canadian indie rock band The Sadies, covered country classics along with original songs.

Doe contributed a cover of "Peggy Sue Got Married" to the 2011 tribute album Rave on Buddy Holly.

His latest solo record, The Westerner, was released in 2016. Doe said that it was made in the desert, in Arizona, and that the genre is psychedelic soul.[4]

He is also working on a book that will about the punk rock scene from 1977 to 1983 that will be released in the spring of 2016. It will be named after the X record Under the Big Black Sun, and will incorporate the punk ethos of contributions from other musicians that were part of the scene, people like Exene Cervenka, Jack Grisham, Henry Rollins, Mike Watt, Jane Wiedlin and others who wrote chapters. Doe wanted it to be a collective recollection, not just one person's perspective of the time.[4]

Acting

In the 1989 biographical film Great Balls of Fire!, Doe played Jerry Lee Lewis's cousin-turned-father-in-law J. W. Brown. He starred in the 1992 film Roadside Prophets and in the 1998 short Lone Greasers. Other movie acting credits include Road House, Vanishing Point, Salvador, Boogie Nights, The Specials, The Good Girl, Gypsy 83, Wyatt Earp, "Border Radio", and Pure Country.

Personal life

Doe was born in Decatur, Illinois. He was married to fellow X member Exene Cervenka between 1980 and 1985.[7] He remarried in 1987, later revealing to Adam Carolla in a podcast in September 2011[8] that he currently resides in Fairfax, California (in the San Francisco Bay Area) with his wife Gigi Blair[9] and three daughters.

Discography

See also: X discography, Knitters discography

Year Album Peak chart positions Label
US US Heat US Indie US Country
1990 Meet John Doe 193 — — — Geffen
1995 Kissingsohard — — — — Forward/Rhino
2000 Freedom Is... — — — — spinART
2002 Dim Stars, Bright Sky — — — — Artist Direct BMG
2005 Forever Hasn't Happened Yet — — — — Yep Roc
2006 For the Best of Us — — — —
2007 A Year in the Wilderness — 42 — —
2009 Country Club (with The Sadies) — 10 37 32
2011 A Day at the Pass (with Jill Sobule) — — — — Pinko
Keeper — 13 — — Yep Roc
2014 The Best of John Doe: This Far — — — —
2016 The Westerner — — — — Cool Rock
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

Filmography

References

  1. ↑ "United States Public Records, 1970-2009". FamilySearch.org.
  2. ↑ Wertheimer, Linda (June 23, 2007). "John Doe: The 'X' Man Returns" (audio). Weekend Edition Saturday. National Public Radio. Retrieved 2008-06-02.
  3. ↑ Eakin, Marah (May 22, 2014). "John Doe on his first big movie, solo record, and day as a dad". The A.V. Club.
  4. 1 2 3 Stafford, James (27 July 2015). "In Conversation With X's John Doe". Diffuser.fm. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
  5. ↑ Graff, Gary. “SXSW: John Doe of X, Kieran Leonard Give Accounts of Fatal Incident”. Billboard. March 13, 2014
  6. ↑ Calm Down Juanita (CD Liner). Calm Down Juanita. Seattle, Washington, US: Echo Records. 1998. inside front cover.
  7. ↑ Mervis, Scott (June 10, 2014). "X (and Exene) coming to Altar Bar in August". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
  8. ↑ Carolla, Adam (September 20, 2011). "John Doe of X". The Adam Carolla Show. Archived from the original on October 6, 2011.
  9. ↑ John Doe at the Internet Movie Database
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