Idol Singer Set For Tour
By Christine R. Walsh

American Idol contestant Michael Johns knows how to work a crowd. As a little tyke, he could be found by the family piano singing his heart out. In his teens, he pumped up local sports fans as a team mascot. Now 29, this talented Aussie with sexy rumpled bed-head hair dared to charm three of the toughest critics ever ~ Paula, Randy and of course, Simon.

“Yeah I was nervous,” Johns laughed during a recent interview with Pulse Magazine. “You’re in a stadium of fifteen thousand or twenty thousand people. You could catch someone on their wrong day. You stand up there in a cattle call and [the judges] could be like, ‘No, no, no.’ It wasn’t until I actually got on the show in front of Simon and Paula that I actually started to get comfortable.”

Johns and the other top ten contestants of Idol’s latest season will be visiting Worcester’s DCU Center August 8 as part of the American Idols LIVE! Tour 2008. The show will feature a strong mix of individual performances and medleys.

The singers have been hard at work preparing for the concert. Despite the fact that they are now seasoned pros, they all began their careers somewhere. For Johns, he moved to Georgia in 1998 on a tennis scholarship, but music was in the forefront of his heart.

“I left all of my friends and family behind in Australia,” he said. “But I was chasing the dream.”

Johns’ support system may have been a continent away, but he credits his family with giving him the tools he needed to succeed in the music industry.
“My mom and my dad are a massive part of the reason why I’m here,” Johns said. “They gave me the confidence to go after it. My family is very, very musical and music has always been around me since I was a little boy. It was like a natural progression for me.”

Idol lovers know that Johns impressed with vocal perfection week after week with songs like “Light My Fire” by The Doors and “Across the Universe” by The Beatles. His favorite song was Dolly Parton’s “It’s All Wrong But It’s All Right.” Sadly, Johns was voted off the show April 10, leaving thousands of fans shocked and upset.

But with his wife Stacey by his side and a highly promising career ahead of him, the future is limitless for this young man. He is working hard on his own rock album which he hopes will be finished by early 2009. For now, he is concentrating on American Idol LIVE!

“During the last month, [the performers] have been working really hard getting everything down,” he said. “It’s going to be a blast ~ like ten concerts in one.”

“But I’m glad I’m coming to Massachusetts in the summer,” he joked. “I don’t deal well with the cold.”

For more info on the American Idols LIVE! Tour 2008, go to www.tour.americanidol.com. For the latest information on Michael Johns, visit his web site at www.michaeljohnsonline.com.

Photo credit: 19 Entertainment