Johns was born in
Charlotte, North Carolina. Johns' father gave him a guitar when he was nine, and he founded his first band (the Devilles) in his teenage years. The group performed locally and made a few records for Dixie Records. The song and an album led to a contract with
Warner Curb Records to produce a
soundtrack for the 1977 film
The Van at the height of the
Vansploitation genre. In an interview with WBT radio personality Keith Larson, Johns was paraphrased as saying
"the song wasn't about a specific woman he met – but a compilation of events
." Johns switched to
Elektra, where he issued singles such as "
Common Man" and "Love Me off the Road". In his later career, he was mainly known as a composer rather than as a performer, as many covered versions of his songs became successful.
John Conlee's
cover version of "Common Man" reached number 1. Conlee made the song his theme song. Johns' songs have also been covered by
Waylon Jennings,
Sammy Kershaw,
Conway Twitty (his final Billboard No. 1, "
Desperado Love") and
Fu Manchu. After Jennings sang Johns' song "America" at a celebration of the restoration of the
Statue of Liberty in 1985, the single was nominated for country song of the year. ==Death==