John Douglas Edwards is an American rock singer who sang for the bands
Buster Brown
Buster Brown is a comic-strip character created in 1902 by Richard F. Outcault. Adopted as the mascot of the Brown Shoe Company in 1904, Buster Brown, along with Mary Jane, and with his dog Tige, became well known to the United States of America ...
,
Montrose,
King Kobra
King Kobra is an American heavy metal band founded by drummer Carmine Appice after his tenure with Ozzy Osbourne from 1983 to 1984.
History
For their first two albums, the band consisted of four relatively unknown musicians: vocalist Marcie F ...
,
Wild Horses
Wild horse (''Equus ferus'') is a species of the genus ''Equus'' that includes domesticated and undomesticated subspecies.
* Przewalski's wild horse (''Equus ferus przewalskii'' or ''Equus przewalskii''), a rare and endangered subspecies of wild ...
, Northrup, Royal Jelly and is best known as the second lead singer of the rock band
Foreigner.
[ Kevin Gibson]
You can go home again (Sometimes it just takes a while)
Louisville Music News, July, 2014. Retrieved 2014-07-08.
Biography
Edwards' first band of note was
Buster Brown
Buster Brown is a comic-strip character created in 1902 by Richard F. Outcault. Adopted as the mascot of the Brown Shoe Company in 1904, Buster Brown, along with Mary Jane, and with his dog Tige, became well known to the United States of America ...
from
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...
. Together with drummer
James Kottak
James Kottak (born December 26, 1962) is an American drummer. Kottak is best known for his work with the German hard rock band Scorpions, which he joined in 1996. At the time of his firing from the band in 2016, he was their all-time longest-se ...
, who had joined the group for their 1985 sophomore album, ''
Sign of Victory'', Edwards was recruited by guitarist
Ronnie Montrose
Ronald Douglas Montrose (November 29, 1947 – March 3, 2012) was an American guitarist who founded and led the rock bands Montrose and Gamma. He also performed and did session work with a variety of musicians, including Van Morrison, Herbie H ...
to appear on his 1987 album, ''
Mean
There are several kinds of mean in mathematics, especially in statistics. Each mean serves to summarize a given group of data, often to better understand the overall value (magnitude and sign) of a given data set.
For a data set, the ''arithme ...
''.
[ Now based in California, Edwards teamed up with the band Northrup whose members were approached by drummer ]Carmine Appice
Carmine Appice ( , born December 15, 1946) is an American rock drummer. He is best known for his associations with Vanilla Fudge; Cactus; the power trio Beck, Bogert & Appice; Rod Stewart; King Kobra; and Blue Murder. He is also Vinny Appice's ...
to join forces in a new version of King Kobra
King Kobra is an American heavy metal band founded by drummer Carmine Appice after his tenure with Ozzy Osbourne from 1983 to 1984.
History
For their first two albums, the band consisted of four relatively unknown musicians: vocalist Marcie F ...
. The resulting ''King Kobra III
''King Kobra III'', released in 1988 on New Renaissance Records, was the first and last album by the Edwards, Michael-Phillips, Northrup, Hart and Appice line-up of King Kobra. After the demise of the original line-up, remaining members Carmine Ap ...
album was released in 1988 but Appice's focus was already on Blue Murder by then and King Kobra split up.
With Northrup not making any progress and a deal with Enigma Records
Enigma Records (also known as Enigma Entertainment Corporation) was a popular rock and alternative American record label in the 1980s.
History
Enigma Records launched as a division of Greenworld Distribution, an independent music importer/dis ...
falling apart, Edwards joined former Buster Brown and Montrose bandmate James Kottak, fresh out of Kingdom Come, and Kingdom Come guitarist Rick Steier
Rick Steier (born October 8, 1960, in Louisville, Kentucky) is a guitarist who has played in the bands Warrant, Kingdom Come, Wild Horses, and KrunK/Kottak. Drummer and fellow Louisville native James Kottak was also in all these bands with Rick ...
in a new band called Wild Horses
Wild horse (''Equus ferus'') is a species of the genus ''Equus'' that includes domesticated and undomesticated subspecies.
* Przewalski's wild horse (''Equus ferus przewalskii'' or ''Equus przewalskii''), a rare and endangered subspecies of wild ...
, championed by producer Keith Olsen
Keith Alan Olsen (May 12, 1945 – March 9, 2020) was an American record producer and sound engineer, who worked with Magnum, Rick Springfield, Fleetwood Mac, Ozzy Osbourne, the Grateful Dead, Whitesnake, Pat Benatar, Heart, Santana, Saga, ...
. However, Edwards would end up leaving the band before their first album after receiving an offer to join Foreigner.
Mick Jones, the founding member, lead guitarist, and main songwriter of Foreigner had been at home recovering from having the flu. Jones was in the process of listening to audition tapes of various singers to replace the newly departed Lou Gramm
Lou Gramm (born Louis Andrew Grammatico; 2 May 1950) is an American singer-songwriter, best known for being the lead singer of the rock band Foreigner from 1977 to 1990 and 1992 to 2003 during which time the band had numerous successful albu ...
when he came upon a cassette of Johnny Edwards. Upon hearing the demo tape, he jumped out of bed and shouted out, "This is it!", referring to Edwards as Jones' choice as Foreigner's new lead singer.[
Released on June 14, 1991, Foreigner's new album, '' Unusual Heat'' had eleven songs in total, and ten of these were the combination of mainstay Mick, Johnny and co-producer, Terry Thomas, who had previously worked with ]Bad Company
Bad Company are an English rock supergroup that was formed in 1973 by singer Paul Rodgers, guitarist Mick Ralphs, drummer Simon Kirke and bassist Boz Burrell.Bad Company ''AllMusic'' Peter Grant, who managed the rock band Led Zeppelin, also ...
's lead vocalist, Brian Howe, on their last three albums as producer and songwriter.
In addition to providing lead vocals, Edwards was also an accomplished guitarist who not only played rhythm guitar but also played the lead guitar in the song "Mountain of Love", the fifth track on the Unusual Heat album. The ''Billboard'' 200 documented ''Unusual Heat'' at #117 on August 3, 1991. The album's first single, "Lowdown and Dirty" was included on the band's Rhino double-CD retrospective, "Juke Box Heroes". Edwards was not accepted by Foreigner fans, as he did not sound much like Lou Gramm. ''Unusual Heat'' was a commercial failure, and Gramm returned the following year, immediately ending Edwards' tenure as Foreigner's lead vocalist.[ In 1992, the reunited Gramm and Foreigner founder Mick Jones released ''The Very Best & Beyond'', a greatest hits collection with three new songs. One of the tracks, "With Heaven On Our Side", was co-written by Johnny Edwards. At the time of his departure from Foreigner, Edwards had co-written ten songs with Jones, in anticipation of a follow-up album to ''Unusual Heat''.][
After leaving Foreigner, Edwards teamed up with former Kingdom Come guitarist Danny Steigerwald, aka Danny Stag, bassist David Seaton, and drummer Jeff Klaven, formerly with Cobra and Krokus, under the name Royal Jelly. The group's eponymous 1994 debut album was produced by ]Matt Wallace
Matt Wallace is an American record producer. He is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley,[Island Records
Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, anoth ...]
. Despite its contemporary alternative rock
Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...
flavor, it sank without a trace.
:– Johnny Edwards on his album with Royal Jelly[
Edwards mostly retired from playing and recording music in 1995, returning to his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, to raise a family. He later became associated with the telecommunications industry.][
In 2001 an album of Northrup demos recorded in the late 1980s featuring Edwards on lead vocals, was released by Metal Mayhem Music under the name JK Northrup.
In a 2004 interview Jeff "JK" Northrup, Edwards' old bandmate and friend, discussed receiving an offer to record a new rock album with Edwards as vocalist. Edwards declined, choosing to remain outside music. ]Paul Shortino
Paul Shortino (born May 14, 1953) is an American rock singer and musician who has sung for Rough Cutt/The Cutt, Quiet Riot, Bad Boyz, and Shortino. He briefly recorded with J.K. Northrup as the duo, Shortino/Northrup. He has also recorded as a ...
assumed lead vocals on the project. Edwards still contributed songwriting and co-lead vocals for two tracks on the album ''Afterlife'', issued in 2004 on MTM Music.[Interview with Jeff Northrup]
www.melodicrock.com. Retrieved 2014-07-08.
Edwards made another guest vocal appearance on JK Northrup's 2007 album, ''Wired In My Skin'' providing lead vocals on the title track.
Edwards and Northrup also can be heard playing and singing together on two compilation rock albums released by the MelodicRock Records label and website.[
Edwards is currently fronting Louisville, KY based rock band Bleu Phonque who released their eponymous debut album in 2018.]
Discography
;With Buster Brown
*'' Loud and Clear'' (1984)
*'' Sign of Victory'' (1985)
;With Montrose
*''Mean
There are several kinds of mean in mathematics, especially in statistics. Each mean serves to summarize a given group of data, often to better understand the overall value (magnitude and sign) of a given data set.
For a data set, the ''arithme ...
'' (1987)
;With King Kobra
*''King Kobra III
''King Kobra III'', released in 1988 on New Renaissance Records, was the first and last album by the Edwards, Michael-Phillips, Northrup, Hart and Appice line-up of King Kobra. After the demise of the original line-up, remaining members Carmine Ap ...
'' (1988)
;With Foreigner
*'' Unusual Heat'' (1991)
;With Royal Jelly
*''Royal Jelly'' (1994)
;With JK Northrup
*''JK Northrup'' (2001)
;With Shortino/Northrup
*''Afterlife'' (2004) (vocals on two songs)
;With JK Northrup
*''Wired In My Skin'' (2007) (vocals on title track)
;With Bleu Phonque
*''Bleu Phonque'' (2018)
References
External links
*
Bleu Phonque website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Johnny
Foreigner (band) members
King Kobra members
Montrose (band) members
American rock singers
Musicians from Louisville, Kentucky
Wild Horses (American rock band) members
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Place of birth missing (living people)
Singers from Kentucky
Rock musicians from Kentucky