Cult singer and songwriter Daniel Johnston has died at the age of 58. According to a family statement, he passed away of natural causes.
Johnston picked up a local following in Austin, Texas while working at McDonald’s in the 1980s where he used to hand out tapes of his music. As if fated, his music went on to draw admirers from across the globe. He was a troubled soul who battled with mental illness which shaped his life and those around him, this was well-covered in the insightful and sensitive 2006 documentary “The Devil and Daniel Johnston” which won the Sundance Film Festival Director’s Award. He rocketed to global notoriety in the early 1990s when album artwork from his “Hi, How Are You?” record was featured on a t-shirt worn by Kurt Cobain at the height of Nirvana’s exploding popularity. Cobain called him “the greatest songwriter on earth.”
In 2013, James Yorkston and Adrian Crowley released a tribute album My Yoke Is Heavy: The Songs Of Daniel Johnston. In a Folk Radio UK interview with them, ‘Adrian recalls the genesis of this project coming from a Barbican concert, a tribute under the same title as the film, “The Devil and Daniel Johnston”, that featured both he and James.
Adrian Crowley: “It was Spring 2006, as far as I remember. There was a big extravaganza organised in the Barbican in London. The list of artists to perform was quite something, apart from Daniel himself there was Teenage Fanclub, the now sadly missed Vic Chestnutt, Howe Gelb, Jason Pierce, (Mark Linkous was due to play also but couldn’t make it, bless him). Yes, Daniel himself played and it was quite something.”
His music had been covered by many, most notably a tribute album was released with the wry title of The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered which featured covers by Tom Waits, Beck, Eels, Bright Eyes, Death Cab For Cutie, Sparklehorse, Mercury Rev and The Flaming Lips.
His creative genius and the naked honesty of his words will be remembered.
Photo: From Wikimedia Commons