Michael Johns (20 October 1978 – 1 August 2014), born Michael John Lee, was an Australian singer-songwriter who finished in eighth place on the seventh season of a United States television series, American Idol, in 2008. (wikipedia.org)
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He was going to attend Denver University. "I thought it was way too cold there and it turned out the coach had second thoughts anyway," he told Billboard in 2008. "I chose Abraham Baldwin Agriculture College as it was in the South and a lot of great music was coming out of there. I knew if I went to Los Angeles or New York, I could get swallowed up."
While attending ABAC, Johns met guitarist Roddie White. The two wrote songs together and performed on campus.
Johns played cover gigs in Atlanta, then joined a band call Film. They were together for 18 months and were offered deals, but the deals were for Johns as a solo artist and for his music publishing. Johns was 21 and the other band members were over 30. He described it as a difficult time and a "messy situation." He told the lead singer, Michael Sickler, that if they wanted their songs to see the light of day, he needed to take one of the deals.
Michael Goldberg signed Johns to Maverick as a solo artist. Johns recorded under his birth name, Michael Lee. He didn't take the last name Johns until 2006, as an homage to his grandfather, whose first name was John. Michael Lee was actually Michael John Lee, thus the plural "Johns."
Johns completed his album for Maverick and assembled a band called the Rising. "The label folded and my record never saw the light of day until I appeared on American Idol," he toldBillboard. "Warner Bros. put the Maverick recordings up on iTunes."
Next, Johns was signed to Columbia by Tim Devine. But when many west coast label personnel were dismissed, a lot of developing artists were dropped, including Johns.
Johns told Billboard in the 2008 interview that he started watching Idol right from the beginning. "I was intrigued like the rest of the world. Kelly Clarkson was awesome and still is. I think she is the biggest reason why the show got as big as it did," he said. "She came out and legitimized the credibility of the show. Idol is the best platform these days for finding new talent." (souce hollywoodreporter.com)