That following Monday morning, it was back to work at his new day gig, working as a middle school substitute teacher. Johnson’s Facebook status from that day reads:
By the end of this morning’s homeroom (845AM!!!) at M.S. 443, all my post Xmas Jam thoughts and feelings of being a rock star were COMPLETELY extinguished. Don’t those kids know who I think I am?!? ‘Ron Johnson on the bass’ has safely been returned to Earth by a bunch of 8th graders.
A Year Off From the Road
When Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe started playing again two years ago, Johnson still had the gig. “I did initially. And then I got the Brett Dennen gig. So, I would bounce off the Brett gig and do some Karl shows,” says Johnson. “And then towards the end of the Brett run, I got a call from Karl’s manager saying that they were basically going to go with the guy that I had called to sub for me. And that was it.”
[Photo by Marc Millman]
The sudden lineup-change caught Johnson off guard (“There are no hard feelings, I hung out with Karl last week.”), and it meant taking an unplanned break from the road after Brett Dennen’s record cycle touring ran its course.
But that wasn’t such a bad thing.
“Last year was just an amazing year off. I was on the road almost nonstop for 15 years with Karl and a bunch of other bands,” says Johnson. “I didn’t even know how tired I was until I started getting lots of sleep and having things that are consistent like friends and dinners and walking in the park and getting to know your neighborhood.”
While he continued to gig locally with bands like Some Cat From Japan, he settled into the challenges of his new teaching career. “It’s a great way to balance out the accolades that you get for playing music to switch to a job where you are getting absolutely zero, none,” says Johnson. “I think that every rock star should have to go into the classroom to get their head straight.”
Back In The Band
When George Porter ultimately decided not to tour with the Warren Haynes Band, the position naturally went to Johnson. Also, Dirty Dozen Brass Band drummer Terence Higgins would be touring instead of Dumpstaphunk’s Raymond Webber who played on the album.
“Some people said that they were excited that it was going to be me and Terence,” says Johnson, “because now they can keep their Dumpstaphunk, they can keep their Runnin’ Pardners, and they have this band to look forward to instead of one band sucking up all of the other bands during the summer.”
The Warren Haynes Band played its first real show of the tour last week at the Wanee festival after three days of rehearsal. “I can’t say enough about the rehearsals—some of the greatest moments,” says Johnson. “And then we go down to Wanee. It was such a trip to go from the controlled rehearsal environment to being thrust onto the stage without a sound check with an amp that you’re not quite familiar with and it’s like ‘go!’”
“I’m sure that there will be covers coming out of the late night hangs,” says Johnson. “Warren is like an encyclopedia of music and so is (keyboardist) Nigel Hall and myself and Terence.” It will be interesting to see how the material and setlists develop as the band gels over the tour’s 30 dates (so far) that will take them from Australia to Jazz Fest to the summer festival circuit to regular shows and then to Europe.
So, how does Johnson feel to be back out on the road with a big band? “It’s probably the best-case scenario for me, to be able to have this kind of an outlet with the size of Warren’s audience and the size of his talent—I can’t think of any other project that I’d want to do!”
But, he adds, “When I do have time off, I’ll just come back and enjoy Brooklyn.”
2 Responses
the picture leading off this article has me humming “one of these things is not like the other, one of these things just ain’t the same.”
OMG – Just watched Warren Haynes Band on Palladia – Ron laid down a groove from beginning to end -perfectly in the pocket. His tone/timbre laid right into the mix as well – although that can be tweaked after-the-fact, it sounded to me like he had it down. Unbelievably good. Enough embellishment so you knew he had the chops, but never, and I mean NEVER got in the way of anyone else. All-star band… Nigel Hall on keys, Alecia Chakour singing back-up. These people are headliners in their own right.