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DOCUMENTARY ON ONE

Johnny Jameson at Resonance FM IMG_2783 Image Name: Johnny Jameson at Resonance FM IMG_2783

Documentary On One 

Johnny Jameson drops names. Lots of them: Johnny Cash (Jameson was his tour manager). Richard Nixon (he met him coming out of a lift – they chatted for half an hour). Carrie Fisher (he was her bodyguard). Whitey Bulger (he won’t go into details). George Carlin (he was his tour manager too and introduced him to the comedy of Brendan Grace).

If you wonder whether he really knew all these people, “I swear on the lives of my children!”

In a way, you don’t mind because Johnny tells great stories: the time he stopped the lunch service in a Chinese restaurant with a baseball bat – he wanted to get money back he was owed.

Or, the time he got a band on a plane without tickets.

Or, the time he pretended he was hypnotised on ‘The Late Late Show’.

Johnny started as a bricklayer in Athboy, Co.Meath but all he ever wanted to do was be part of the music business he saw on the showband shows on Teilifís Éireann.

He eventually blagged his way into showbusiness.

His career took him to the US which he eventually left because of a disagreement with the taxman and realising that it was no country to get sick or grow old in.

This he learned after his neighbour had a heart attack but the ambulance wouldn’t bring him to hospital until the man’s wife located his insurance details.

Johnny is now a DJ in London, specialising in Country & Irish.

He has his own show on local radio.

He also plays CDs for get-togethers of retired Irish emigrants.

It’s a far cry from the huge concerts he managed in the US but Johnny takes the work just as seriously: “It’s still the music business. It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.”

RTÉ Radio 1, Saturday 1 August, 1.05pm