| Michael Johnson (drummer) |
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Michael Wayne Johnson (born 30 July 1982 in Orlando, Florida ) is an American pop singer and drummer, formerly of the Boyband " Natural ". He is currently working on a few solo projects; one with LukeWarm Freeda. EARLY LIFE Michael Johnson began dancing at the age of 4. He eventually began to dance professionally, winning many awards and scholarships. He also danced for many Disney and television specials growing up. At the age of 8, he began to study voice and performing in Musical Theatre . At the age of 13, he won the titles "Mr. Dance of Florida" and "Teen Dancer of the year". NATURAL Many publicity stories exist as to how Natural was started, but the most likely one is that in 1999 , Marc Terenzi met a man named Patrick King at a party. Michael was friends with Patrick King, and Marc was friends with a man named Ben Bledsoe . After many line up changes, the men added Michael 'J' Horn to their lineup and decided to call themselves Natural The boys tried to get signed with many major labels but were turned down despite a huge local following in Orlando, FL . One day as they rehearsed at Transcontinental Studios , boyband king Lou Pearlman noticed them and liked their act. Soon after, they were signed with Transcontinental Records . , Sing , and look cute, but they would also play instruments. Many of the other members already played various instruments but Michael had not. It was through this arrangement that he started learning percussion. By the time the first single was out Michael was officially the Drummer of the group and played well enough to be recorded on the first album 'Keep it Natural'. Lou Pearlman spared no expense and promoted the guys' first single with Claire's and a tour with the Monkey's . However American fame was slow and the guys were soon sent to Germany to conquer little girl's hearts. They had much success with such hits as 'Put your arms around me', 'Will it ever', and 'Runaway'. In the Summer of 2001 Marc Terenzi met German Pop Star Sarah Connor at a music festival. The two soon hit it off and were dating despite Lou Pearlman 's wishes. Lou Pearlman had strict rules for his Boy Bands : they couldnt have facial hair, they couldnt have many piercings or tattoos, and they definitely couldn't have girlfriends. However, the relationship continued on. Meanwhile Michael was having his own trouble with Lou's rules. He was dubbed the 'bad boy' in the image of the group but wasn't allowed to do anything remotely 'unwholesome'. He had a Lip Piercing briefly but Lou made him remove it. On top of this he had to constantly have his hair in blue spikes an image he kept until the group dismembered. In the summer of 2003 Sarah Connor became pregnant and the couple became engaged. Around this time Natural was coming back from a hiatus and releasing a single 'What if' from their 2nd album 'Its only Natural'. Lou Pearlman wasn't happy with the news and wanted Marc kicked out of Natural and replaced with someone new. The other members (except Patrick King) were not thrilled with this and decided to break Natural up. They finished the tour and Michael was left to a new phase in life. LIFE AFTER NATURAL Once Natural disbanded Michael wished to remain close to his now former band members. He was asked to stay with the 'New Natural' which meant staying signed with Lou Pearlman and doing the same cheesy pop. Patrick King had already agreed but after awhile Michael decided against the arrangement. After turning down the idea of staying in the 'New Natural' Michael got word that wanted to continue to make pop rock songs, while the other members wanted to do something more pure rock. From this situation Jaded Rose disbanded despite the offers of a reality TV show in Germany and a record deal. Marc Terenzi kept with the pop rock style and the rest of the members went off to form LukeWarm Freeda. Mike C was the founding member: he had originally made a band by the name "Jaded Rose" 10 years previously. Michael joined him as a drummer and Paul stayed on as a performance-only guitarist. Lukewarm Freeda created music of a more rock style: almost Southern Rock with a hint of funk. They began writing songs in 2004 and by 2005 had begun performing a few gigs in the Orlando, FL area. By the end of 2005 they had relocated to Los Angelos, CA and continued to perform in the LA and Orlando areas. By the start of 2006 they had officially signed an Indie Record deal and began working on their first album. Meanwhile Michael continues to play drums for some various side projects including Jake CoCo. Michael has now joined forces with Evan Taubenfeld, Jack Myers and Jeremy Faccone in a band currently named Hate Me. EXTERNAL LINKS
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