If it rained, you might get your car stuck you'd have to leave early to get out since the last quarter mile was nothin' but dirt.' 'I remember going out to Soap Creek and seeing Clifton Chenier or the Meters and going, 'Oh my God! I can't believe how good this is!' That club was such a cool place. On the eve of the Chris Isaak band's first national tour since 1999, Johnson called from Irvine, Calif., to reminisce about his journey from Soap Creek to Showtime.Īustin's halcyon days as a scene were at hand when Johnson arrived. This, of course, left him little choice but to pick up his drumsticks and join in. Johnson found himself at UT in the midst of a thriving Seventies music scene in Austin. His experience with higher learning, however, was anything but typical. Although Chris Isaak sings 'I'm the original American boy' during the opening of his Showtime series The Chris Isaak Show, it may well be the theme song of his band's drummer, Kenney Dale Johnson.īorn in the Panhandle town of Borger, Texas, in 1955, Johnson survived a typical, happy childhood, then went off to college.

Wild at heart wicked game