Johnny Jameson's mother made him a deal, he could work in showbiz, once he got a trade.   So, he became a bricklayer for 4 years.  All the time, he watched the showbands on RTE TV and wished he could be part of that world. 

He had tried his hand, playing records at a parish dance.  The priest told him to cut out the slow dances.  Johnny said to the priest, “You stick to saying Mass and I'll stick to playing music ”.  The priest threw him out.

Then one day, Johnny was in Clerys, Dublin and he saw the singer Roly Daniels shopping with his wife.  He went up to him and asked him if he needed a road manager.  Daniels said 'yes' and asked what experience Johnny had.  “Loads”, he said.  Daniels said he could start the following day.   That night, Johnny went to the guy who sold Daniels' band their PA and asked for a lesson on setting up the equipment.  He worked all night and did the gig the next day.  The band were happy and Johnny's new life in showbiz had begun.

He worked in Ireland until the showband era came to an end.  “I remember one night we were doing the Mount Brandon in Tralee.  And there was just a wall between them and the DJ.  And the DJ was playing the same song that the Miami was playing and I thought to myself, 'this is it – it's all over'.”

So, Johnny decided to head for the States with his family.  He had a wife, Kathleen, and three sons.  The same day he had the notion to travel, he told Kathleen.  She couldn't get out of Ireland fast enough.  “She said, 'can we go tomorrow'.  I put the house on sale that day.”

In the States, Johnny sold cars but yearned to get back into the music business.  He discovered that there was a promoter living in his area.  He approached him and was given the chance to manage a short tour by George Jones.  It went well.   Then the promoter told him he was putting Johnny on a Johnny Cash tour.   Johnny thought he was joking – everyone knew Cash was Johnny's hero.  His first record was “Ring of Fire”.

It was no joke.  Johnny first met Cash in Texas.

“I knocked on Cash's room and said, 'I'm your new tour manager.'  And he said, 'Are you Irish?'  And I said, 'We have a problem with that?'  'No, I love the Irish.'  And we hit it off”

For the next few years, Johnny worked managing tours and shows: the comedian, George Carlin, Diana Ross, The Beach Boys, The Monkees, Bruce Springsteen.

When he wasn't on the road, he had other ventures, like an industrial laundry.  He liked to chase up the laundry's debtors.  One lunchtime, he arrived at a Chinese restaurant that hadn't paid their bill for laundry.  He brandished a baseball bat, made all the diners stand up and took all the tablecloths off the tables, then went into the kitchen and took the uniforms off the staff.

The laundry also got involved in t-shirt printing.  Johnny signed a deal with the FAI that allowed them sell the official merchandise for the 1994 World Cup in the USA.  “We bought the t-shirts for $5 and sold them for $20.  We made a lot of money.”

Eventually, Johnny's time in the US came to an end.  He realised he came to the country too late to build up social security payments to allow him and Kathleen to retire comfortably and be able to afford health care.  This was brought home to them when a neighbour had a heart attack.

The ambulance arrived but 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.  He's 63 but still lugs huge speakers into each venue, even if there are only a handful of dancers.   "The sound is important to me.  It's still the music business. It's all I've ever wanted to do."

First broadcast:  August 3, 2015 on Radio 1 at 1pm

Producer:  Ronan Kelly

An Irish radio documentary from RTÉ Radio 1, Ireland - Documentary on One - the home of Irish radio documentaries