Jaren Johnston
“Me and Chris [Shifflett] are pretty good friends,” Jaren Johnston says of his band The Cadillac Three’s connection to one of our guest editors. “And we met Dave [Grohl] and Taylor [Hawkins] a while ago. We’re huge fans, and Dave was a huge influence on me, starting off as a drummer.”
On one level Johnston is a true southern child – all trucker caps, Jack Daniel’s and the most spectacularly country-fried accent in Tennessee. But there are other ‘versions’ of him. There’s the boy who grew up on funk, rock, grunge, southern Baptist music and more. The guy who’ll just as likely listen to Fugazi as Hank Williams Sr. The well-travelled millennial who spoke out in favour of the Black Lives Matter movement last summer, losing a few fans in the process.
Speaking from his home in Florida, where he’s been enjoying some quality time with his wife and three-year-old son, Johnston has been adjusting to life as a homebody. Alongside parenting duties and producing other bands, he’s used the time to make The Cadillac Three’s second album of 2020, the irresistible, funked up.
