Will Johns was born into the "noise" of rock 'n' roll royalty. But now this British musician is cozied up in the charming nook of Safety Harbor — soothed by the blues.
His father was Andy Johns, a British sound engineer and record producer who worked with the greats like the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin. And his mother was actress Paula Boyd. And his aunt is English model and actress Pattie Boyd, who was married to famous musicians Eric Clapton and George Harrison.
According to his website bio, Clapton encouraged Johns to pick up the guitar — cementing his own musical journey.
“Eric put me on the path by teaching me the opening chords of 'Crossroads.' When I asked for the next part, he said the rest was up to me to figure out," the biography writes. "It was a great lesson in encouragement and gave me the confidence that I draw on to this day.”
He then forged his own path as a blues musician. He studied performing arts in Oxford, where he created his first band, Cloud 9 — inspired by Harrison's 1987 album.
He spent most of his career in Europe, but he has been performing in Florida since 2023. And as of a few weeks ago, he's an official resident of the Sunshine State.
Johns has a new album, "On Top of the World." He's also working on an autobiography called "Bluesdaddy: Born into Noise, Raised on Chaos and Saved by the Blues," with writer Marshall Terrill. It's set for release later this year.
On WUSF's "Florida Matters Live & Local," Johns discussed his musical background, his journey to the states and living in Safety Harbor.
The interview below has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Is this a permanent move for you or is it testing out the waters?
I've been testing out the waters for a number of years now, carving out a little niche for myself around Florida. I love it here, and I've been performing all over the state — done a number of tours.
You've got quite the pedigree. You sort of were born into this world of British blues. Tell me a little bit about that. When was the first time you picked up a guitar, and who were your earliest mentors?
My earliest memories, even in this studio, I can smell the electricity. My earliest memories are just those smells and the little lights that we have in the studio, little red lights on and off and flickering. And there just was always guitars and music around me from day one.
I guess I started to play seriously when I was about 14, 15. I used to spend a lot of time at my Uncle Eric's house in the country.
Uncle Eric is not just any old Uncle Eric. This is Eric Clapton.
He was a great mentor and a great friend. He also taught me how to cast a fly line into the water. We used to do a lot of fishing, and that's been another one of my passions. In fact, some years when I wasn't working in music, I used to take people out deep sea fishing off the southern coast of England.
Let me go back to the autobiography you're working on: "Bluesdaddy: Born into Noise, Raised on Chaos and Saved by the Blues." Do you mean raised by chaos was your upbringing? Did it have that kind of element of chaos to it, even though it was clearly musically very rich?
The world of rock 'n' roll comes along with, of course, sex and drugs. I was surrounded by people — my closest family, Mum and Dad. Both had problems with substances and with alcohol.
I grew up with those influences all around me, and obviously, it affects the way people behave. A lot of lessons were learned by other people's behavior, and also, some people were, I guess, what you might call functioning addicts.
But one would still be aware of a change in personality or a change in behavior. And so navigating all of these sometimes turbulent emotions and behaviors has been my life's work.
Now you're in Safety Harbor. I guess there's some kind of significance to that, too, right? You sort of maybe navigate into calmer waters in your life.
Absolutely, yeah, and the title of my new album, that reflects as well an experience that I had at the beginning of last year.
When I was on tour in Guatemala, I found myself on top of the world. Literally, quite literally, and it was a lonely place to be.
I had a sort of a profound thought of like, well, it's all very well being successful and getting to where you're going, and achieving all of these wonderful accolades in music. But here I am, on top of the world, all alone with no one to share it with — "Well done, Will. That's great." And so that inspired the record.
And some of the tunes from the record, one of them in particular reflects that. It's called "The Loneliest Man on Earth."
And so I explored some of those themes, and also being able to travel to many wonderful places around the world. I've met incredible musicians everywhere that I go, and lovely people. I have collaborated with many of these fantastic musicians.
Will Johns can be found on Instagram as @willjohnsmusic. You can get more information on his website.
You can listen to the full interview in the media player above. This story was compiled from an interview by Matthew Peddie for "Florida Matters Live & Local." You can listen to the full episode here.
