Music Doe moved to Los Angeles, California, and in 1976 met guitar player
Billy Zoom through an ad in the local free weekly paper,
The Recycler. As a musician with X, Doe has two feature-length concert films, several music videos, and an extended performance-and-interview sequence in
The Decline of Western Civilization,
Penelope Spheeris's seminal documentary about the early-1980s L.A. punk scene. Along with co-writer
Exene Cervenka, Doe composed most of the songs recorded by X.
Wild Gift, an album from that band's heyday, was named "Record of the Year" by
Rolling Stone, the
Los Angeles Times, and
The New York Times. With
Dave Alvin, he co-wrote two of the songs on
The Blasters' 1984 album
Hard Line, "Just Another Sunday" and "Little Honey". He also wrote "Cyrano de Berger's Back" for
The Flesh Eaters LP
A Minute to Pray, a Second To Die. Since 1990, Doe has recorded nearly a dozen albums as a soloist or in collaboration with other artists, and has contributed tracks to motion pictures. In the 1992 movie
The Bodyguard (starring
Kevin Costner and
Whitney Houston), it is Doe's version of "
I Will Always Love You" that plays on the jukebox when Costner's and Houston's characters are dancing. It was released on audio cassette by Warner Bros. in September 1992, but no version is believed to exist on CD. He co-wrote and played on the song "Lobotomy" with
Tyler Willman for the eponymous 1998 debut studio album of the band
Calm Down Juanita. , 2006 Doe took part in
Todd Haynes's 2007 movie ''
I'm Not There'', recording two
Bob Dylan covers, "Pressing On" and "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine". Both recordings were included on the film's soundtrack, and the former was prominently featured in the film, with
Christian Bale (as Pastor John Rollins) lip-synching Doe's vocals. Doe recorded the song "Unforgiven" in 2007 with
Aimee Mann on
A Year in the Wilderness, an album which also featured
Kathleen Edwards,
Jill Sobule,
Dan Auerbach. He then joined with
Eddie Vedder on a mix of the song "Golden State" in 2008. "The Meanest Man in the World" by Doe was featured in Season 4 of the television series
Friday Night Lights and included on the
second soundtrack album.
Country Club (2009), featuring Canadian indie rock band
The Sadies, covered country classics along with original songs. Doe contributed a cover of "
Peggy Sue Got Married" to the 2011 tribute album
Rave on Buddy Holly. His latest solo record,
The Westerner, was released in 2016. Doe said that it was made in the Arizona desert, and that the genre of the music is
psychedelic soul. a split 12-inch 45 rpm EP by Doe and
Micah Nelson (as "Particle Kid"). Credited to "Kid Doe," the release features the two musicians covering one of each other's songs, with Doe performing Nelson's "Wheels" and Nelson performing Doe's "Lucky Penny." The EP also includes Doe's cover of "Hello Stranger" (
The Carter Family) and Nelson's cover of "Captain Kidd" (
Michael Hurley).
Lucky Wheel was issued as a
Record Store Day exclusive for
Small Business Saturday.
The Vinyl District rated the EP "A–". In November 2022, John Doe released a three song acoustic EP with East Nashville based indie label, 3Sirens, called
"3Sirens Session: John Doe". The label was founded by
The Grahams, who originally met with John Doe to record the session in Austin, TX at the ChurchHouse, produced by
David Garza.
Acting In the 1989 biographical film
Great Balls of Fire!, Doe played
Jerry Lee Lewis's cousin-turned-father-in-law J. W. Brown. He starred in the 1992 films
Roadside Prophets and
Pure Country, and in the 1998
short Lone Greasers. Other movie acting credits include
Road House,
Vanishing Point,
Salvador,
Boogie Nights,
The Specials,
The Good Girl,
Gypsy 83,
Wyatt Earp,
Border Radio,
The Outsiders, and
Brokedown Palace. Doe has appeared on the television series
Law & Order,
Roswell,
Carnivale,
One Tree Hill,
Childrens Hospital (alongside his bandmates in X) and
The Wizards of Waverly Place.
Author With co-author
Tom DeSavia, Doe wrote and compiled stories for a book about the LA punk rock scene from 1977 to 1983. The book,
Under the Big Black Sun, incorporated the punk ethos of contributions from other musicians that were part of the scene, people like
Exene Cervenka,
Jack Grisham,
Henry Rollins,
Mike Watt,
Jane Wiedlin and others who wrote chapters. Doe wanted it to be a collective recollection, not just one person's perspective of the time. Doe and DeSavia again invited contributors to narrate the space of time from 1982 to 1987. ==Personal life==