In his childhood, Johnsson enjoyed listening to classical music and gradually became more interested in his father's '50s and '60s rock. Popular music played on the radio in this era generally had a lot of
strings in it, and even though much of it did not fall in his taste, it still managed to influence him. As a seven-year-old, he heard his first
progressive rock as a theme in a Norwegian children TV program. At age nine, he started to listen to
The Beatles, who also used brass and strings in songs like "
Penny Lane". Two years later, his taste for music took a turn as he started to listen to
hard rock and
heavy metal bands like
Accept,
Judas Priest,
Iron Maiden,
Manowar,
Ozzy Osbourne,
Black Sabbath and
Uriah Heep. Some of these bands had symphonic elements in some of their songs. When he was 14, he started to listen to more raw heavy metal bands like
Metallica,
Slayer,
Bathory and especially
Celtic Frost. One of his friends played the B-side of a
Scorpions album for him, and Johnsson instantly fell in love with the band's older albums.
Uli Jon Roth, who played guitar on these albums, had broken up with Scorpions and formed the band
Electric Sun. Christofer managed to find a copy of one of their albums after a long search, and ended up becoming obsessed with the music. He mentions Roth as one of his greatest influences in the early symphonic Therion albums. ==Personal life==