Guys Issue - Spring/Summer 1998
By Ethan Brown

Meet the white hot 17-year-old Guitarist who's on his way
to becoming a 21st - century soul man.
 

Seventeen cover photo by James White Forget that he's cute and young enough to be your lab partner.  Jonny Lang is living a guitar-hero's fantasy.  Not only has Jonny's debut CD, Lie to Me, gone platinum, but he's already shared the stage with rock'n' roll icons like Aerosmith, Blues Traveler and the Rolling Stones.  At this year's televised Rock and Roll Hall of Fame awards ceremony, he got to jam with guitar god Jeff Beck.  Not bad for a blues singer who got his first guitar four years ago - on his 13th birthday.

Like other too-young-to-vote talents trying to make their mark in the music business, Jonny views his age as just a number.  "Everybody likes to make a big novelty out of young musicians," says Jonny at the seventeen-photo shoot in New York City.  "I just don't see the novelty in a young person who loves something and knows what he wants to do."
 

His love affair with the blues began after he went to a Bad Medicine Blues Band concert in his hometown of Fargo, North Dakota, when he was 12 years old.  By the end of the show, Jonny knew he wanted to be up there himself.  "I started taking lessons from their guitar player and eventually joined the band a few months later," he says.

Recognizing their son's talents, Marcia and Jon Langseth (Jonny shortened his name three years ago) moved the family to Minneapolis when Jonny was 14 to take advantage of the city's thriving blues scene.  "When you have a kid like Jonny," says Marcia, "you know it's rare.  I saw little good in holding him back from an experience like this."

Relocating the family to advance Jonny's career seems even more generous when you consider that the Langseths have been divorced since their son was four months old.  But they have remained friends over the years and decided they wanted to manage Jonny's early career together.

The gamble obviously paid off.  Jonny found a place for himself on stage in no time.  "I started sitting in with Dr. Mambo's Combo," he says, "and I'd get up there every Monday and get my butt kicked."

Confident of his skills anyway, Jonny became the front man for Bad Medicine, the group renamed itself - Kid Jonny Lang and the Big Bang - in 1994.  The name may have been goofy, but the band's music was no laughing matter.  Executives from A&M records began coming to Jonny's shows.  When most 15-year-olds are worrying about pop quizzes, Jonny was stressing about landing a major record deal.

Jonny's bluesy sound is hardly typical of most teenage pop; he has a lot more in common with Fiona Apple than with Hanson.  When he plays on stage - long blond hair whipping around his face, fingers flying all over the strings- it seems as if he were born with a guitar in his hands.  His heavily callused fingertips tell the story.  "I don't have fingerprints anymore," he says, laughing.

But the guitar playing is only half of the package.  "I've been singing for as long as I can remember," Jonny says, recalling the days when he used to sing Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean"- obviously way before he grew (he's a lanky 6'1") and way before his voice changed into his trademark growl.

The Minneapolis gigs landed him a record contract with A&M in 1996.  Lie to Me came out in 1997, receiving raves from nearly everyone but the artist himself.  This shy, soft-spoken guy doesn't like to listen to his own voice.  "Did you ever listen to yourself on an answering machine?" Jonny asks.  "Isn't it weird to hear yourself?"  What happens if he hears one of his songs on the radio?  I turn it off," he says.  But Jonny can deal with catching his videos on MTV.  "It's cool because you see your videos in context with other people's," he says.  "There'll be like a Mary J. Bilge video, then my video and then an Aerosmith video.  It's crucial to see how I fit in."

Jonny was an ideal fit on last year's Aerosmith tour.  "I have seen many bands release songs, videos and have number one hits," says Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry.  "But hardly any of them would get the reaction that Jonny does live, which is a testament to his playing.  He and his band would very often get a standing ovation at the end of their show."

He also always plays barefoot - a tribute to one of his blues heroes, Luther Allison - and sports a silver toe ring.  "I first wore it the night he died to make myself feel better, and I ended up playing a great show," Jonny says.  "I'm just a hippie guy."  His Guatemalan knapsack, yellow-tinted (prescription) glasses and leather ankle bracelet (a good luck charm from Aerosmith's Steven Tyler) complete the picture.

Jonny's on the road most of the year, but he makes time to see his girlfriend, actress Hallie Meyers-Shyer, 18 (who's had bit roles in both Father of the Bride movies and also appears in the video of Jonny's second single, "Missing Your Love").  They've been going out for almost a year.  A mention of her name makes him smile.  "We met at one of my concerts in Los Angeles," he explains.  "Her whole family was there.  I fell in love with her and them."

Although Jonny admits that maintaining a long distance relationship is hard, he's sure he has found the right girl.  "It's tough," he says, "but we're best friends - that's how we keep it together."  Jonny's silver ID bracelet from Hallie (which reads LOVE YOU FOREVER HALLIE) let's everyone know they're serious.  "I have extremely high phone bills," Jonny says with a laugh.  "The only things I spend my money on are phone bills and guitars."

Besides calling Hallie, Jonny keeps in constant touch with his sisters - Stephanie, 30; Heidi, 26; and Jessica, 15.  He's convinced that growing up in a brother-free household has made him a better person.  "I have more of an open mind," he says.  "If I had a bunch of brothers, maybe I'd be a pigheaded, macho guy."

Jonny has many plans for the future, and not all of then concern music.  Before he can even think about heading back into the studio, he's got some important business to attend to.  "I'm going to graduate [from high school] the next time I go back home," he says proudly.  "I'm going to take the GED."

As for his music, Jonny's way too humble to admit that there's serious stardom in his future.  He may have played a blues-singing janitor (along-side his idols Wilson Pickett and Eddie Floyd) in the recently released Blues Brothers 2000, but don't expect him to pull a Hollywood thing.  "I was asked to do a Gap commercial," he says.  "But I said no on the spot."