BEACH BOY, GRAMMY WINNER & ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAMER
BRUCE JOHNSTON TO MOVE TO NASHVILLE
Nashville,
TN – As The Beach Boys continue being ambassadors of
the California lifestyle to fans the world over, Beach Boy
Bruce Johnston is bringing his family, music, and surfboard
to the hills of Tennessee. After looking at more than a hundred
houses, the Grammy Award winning and Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame inductee selected a home in Brentwood, TN. Joining Johnston
in the move to Tennessee with his wife, Harriet, will be their
youngest son Max. Their other sons, Ozzie, Justin and Ryan,
who attend college in locations ranging from Australia to
England, will be visiting their family as often as possible
here in the Music City.
Johnston
sites the purity and soulfulness of Nashville music as the
reason for his move. “I want to get back in touch with
writing songs, and Nashville’s amazing writers could
help point me in that direction. Let’s face it, Nashville
has a heart and a melody like no other city and I want to
learn and contribute.” Says Johnston, “Sixty percent
of the music I listen to is out of Nashville.” Johnston
even hinted at tapping into Nashville’s raw talent in
a management and production capacity. Johnston says, “Somewhere
between your brain, heart, cell phone and e-mail you can try
for it all!”
A former
two-term NARAS Governor, Johnston won a Grammy for the 1976
“Song of the Year” for composing the words and
music to “I Write The Songs.” Recorded by Barry
Manilow, the song reached number one on the Billboard,
Cashbox, and Record World charts. In February
2001, Johnston was awarded, along with The Beach Boys, the
NARAS Lifetime Achievement Award in addition to two Beach
Boys recordings previously elected to the NARAS Hall Of Fame.
Beyond his recordings with The Beach Boys, Johnston participated
as vocal arranger and vocalist on Elton John’s “Don’t
Let The Sun Go Down On Me” in 1974, and as vocal arranger
and vocalist on Pink Floyd’s The Wall album
in 1979. Johnston’s earliest music days were spent in
a band that included Phil Spector and as a backup musician
for artists such as Ritchie Valens.
It was
April of 1965 when Johnston initially replaced Glen Campbell
(who was filling in for Brian Wilson on the road) as a “temporary”
Beach Boy. Almost immediately, Bruce completed his first recording
with the band—“California Girls.” In his
first year, Johnston recorded three Beach Boys albums between
April of 1965 and May of 1966: Summer Days, Summer Nights,
The Beach Boys Party and Pet Sounds. Johnston’s
amiable style and reputation as a musician’s musician
landed him in many interesting situations, e.g., introducing
Lennon and McCartney to Pet Sounds in London.
The Johnston
family will maintain their Santa Barbara residence near neighbor
Oprah Winfrey, but they look forward to moving into their
Brentwood home, which measures just under 7,000 square ft.
The move coincides with the June 10 release of Capitol Records’
Sounds of Summer: The Very Best of The Beach Boys.
