Johnny Western (born October 28, 1934) is an American

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...

singer-songwriter, musician, actor, and radio show host. He is a member of the Western Music Association Hall of Fame and the Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame.

Early life

Johnny Western was born Johnny Westerlund in Two Harbors in Lake County in northeastern

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

but was primarily reared in Northfield in south central Minnesota. His father was an instructor and officer in several

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government unemployment, work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was ...

camps, where Western spent some his earlier years. He also lived on

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along the

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. When he was five years old, Western's parents took him to see the western film '' Guns and Guitars'', which starred the actor/singer

Gene Autry Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American actor, musician, singer, composer, rodeo performer, and baseball team owner, who largely gained fame by singing in a Crooner ...

. The young boy decided he wanted to be a singing cowboy. At the age of twelve, he received a guitar. Within a year, he was performing professionally.

Musical career

Johnny Western's professional career began as a young teenager, singing and playing rhythm guitar with a collegiate singing trio. He got a job on radio at the age of thirteen, a feat publicized in ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' as the youngest disc jockey and singer on American radio. At age sixteen, Western began performing with the Sons of the Pioneers. He made his first professional recordings in the summer of 1952 in the studio of WCAL Radio station of St. Olaf College of Northfield, Minnesota. The six songs which resulted from those sessions were released on three singles on the local J-O-C-O label. After having played a supporting role in an episode of "Have Gun, Will Travel", Western wrote " The Ballad of Paladin" as a musical "thank-you-card" to Richard Boone. This landed a deal for him with

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

. Between August 1958 and May 1963, Western recorded seven singles and one album (''Have Gun, Will Travel'', released in May 1962) for Columbia, until he was dropped from their roster. He then signed a contract with the

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...

label, but only one single resulted ("Light The Fuse" b/w " Tender Years"). ''Have Gun Will Travel'' included the haunting Stan Jones song "Cowpoke", which members of the Western Writers of America chose as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time. The album was a mature work, redolent of Western lore. It also included Western's third version of "The Ballad of Paladin", a fine and introspective performance of "The Lonely Man", the gallows ballad "Hannah Lee", " The Streets of Laredo", "The Searchers" and "The Last Roundup". After this, Western was left without a recording contract. Over the years, he recorded various songs for small local labels such as Hep in Missouri or a promo-single for Dodge City. It was not until Johnny Cash invited him to record at his House Of Cash recording studio that Western was able to compile enough material for another LP, which was released under the simple title of ''Johnny Western'' in 1981. Apart from the House of Cash recordings, it contained some unreleased songs Western had recorded for the Hep label. Western's third album was recorded September 17–20, 1984 at Jack Clement Studio in Nashville, with Art Sparer producing. It was released under the title ''Johnny Western Sings 20 Great Classics & Legends''. Amongst others, it contained a new version of Western's own composition "The Gunfighter", featuring Harold Bradley on gut-string guitar, imitating the original "

El Paso El Paso (; ; or ) is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States. The 2020 United States census, 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the List of ...

" sound, since Western had originally written that song with Marty Robbins in mind. His scarce recording output notwithstanding, Johnny Western remained a consistent performer for over sixty years and so his name was never lost on the general public. He performed with

and was a part of the

Johnny Cash John R. Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American singer-songwriter. Most of his music contains themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially songs from the later stages of his career. ...

road show from 1958 until 1997. He wrote and performed the theme song " The Ballad of Paladin" for the CBS television program ''

Have Gun – Will Travel ''Have Gun – Will Travel'' is an American Westerns on television, Western television series that was produced and originally broadcast by CBS on both television and radio from 1957 through 1963. The television version of the series starring Ri ...

'', with Richard Boone. In collaboration with Johnny Cash, he re-wrote the lyrics of NBC's ''

Bonanza ''Bonanza'' is an American Western television series that ran on NBC from September 12, 1959, to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 431 episodes, ''Bonanza'' is NBC's longest-running Western, the second-longest-running Western series on ...

'' and the theme song, "The Rebel – Johnny Yuma", from the ABC series '' The Rebel'', starring Nick Adams. In October 2013, Johnny Western announced that he would stop touring and giving concerts.cf. information on: www.johnnywesterntouring.com, retrieved December 23, 2013.

Albums

Guest appearances

Acting career

Western has appeared in several television programs, including the westerns, '' Have Gun - Will Travel'', '' Tales of Wells Fargo,'' ''

Pony Express The Pony Express was an American express mail service that used relays of horse-mounted riders between Missouri and California. It was operated by the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company. During its 18 months of opera ...

'' (in the 1960 episode "The Story of Julesburg"), and '' Boots and Saddles''. He has had roles in several movies including ''The Night Rider'', ''Fort Bowie'', and '' The Dalton Girls''.

Radio career

In February 1986, Western returned to radio with a daily country music show on KFDI (1070 AM, later KFTI) a country music station calling itself "The Radio Ranch" in Wichita, Kansas. The station and

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

KFDI-FM were sold to Journal Broadcast Group in July 1999. In early April 2010, Johnny announced that he would retire from broadcasting. His last day on the air was Saturday, April 10, 2010. Just over a month and a half later the station would switch to an oldies format.

The Johnny Western Theatre

The Johnny Western Theatre in Wild West World, a theme park located in Park City, Kansas near Wichita, had concerts scheduled to begin in October 2007. However, the park declared bankruptcy in July 2007. Western was never able to perform in his namesake theater, which now sits among the ruins of the Wild West World amusement park, just outside Wichita, Kansas.

Awards and honors

* TV Theme Hall of Fame (1993) * Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame (2000) * Old Time Country Music Hall of Fame (2000) * Western Music Association Hall of Fame (2001) * Wichita Professional Broadcasters Hall of Fame (2002) * Kansas Cowboy Hall of Fame (2004) * Kansas Western Swing Hall of Fame (2004) * Michigan Country Music Hall of Fame (2013)

References

External links

Johnny Western Tour Information
{{DEFAULTSORT:Western, Johnny 1934 births Living people American country singer-songwriters American male film actors American radio personalities American male television actors Male Western (genre) film actors People from Two Harbors, Minnesota People from Northfield, Minnesota Singers from Los Angeles Male actors from Los Angeles Singer-songwriters from Minnesota Country musicians from California Singer-songwriters from California