Rising music artist James Johnston is back in Australia’s country music capital this week, with a whole new list of achievements to tick off his bucket list, including taking his career full circle, co-hosting the Golden Guitar Awards on Saturday January 25th with fellow artist Max Jackson.
“I used to watch a lot of my heroes hosting the awards, like Troy Cassar-Daley and Lee Kerning and Becky Cole, and now I’m going to be up on that stage hosting the awards and its going to be pretty exciting.” said Johnston.
Johnston has teased his presentation will be a little different to everyone else’s, but it’s not just his co-hosting title that will have him upbeat on the night.
Johnston is eying off four Golden Guitar nominees for Song of the Year, Single of the Year, Vocal Collaboration of the Year, and CMT Video of the Year with Lee Kernaghan for Who I Am.
“Hopefully we take one of them home, we’ll see.”
Johnston kick-started his career at 17 years of age on Australian Idol and The X-Factor, now this year he is bringing his talents for a one night only show on Friday, January 24, after making an appearance in Toyota Park.
An opportunity he never takes for granted.
“It’s been great to be able to play these shows and have people sing on the side, that’s always been a long-time dream,”
“To get to play some of these venues that I’ve always dreamt of playing, it’s been incredible to have my own show at the Town Hall and to be headlining the Kicks in the Park on a Thursday night.”
Johnston is raised like that
Meanwhile, not all the action is happening on the stage.
Johnston is proving country boys are good at keepin it country, as he is shows he is certainly raised like that, setting off this Sunday in a 100km run from Armidale to Tamworth raising funds for Ronald McDonald House in Tamworth.
Johnston will be completing the distance over four days with his new song to be released this Thursday, ‘Hell Boy’, the inspiration to keep going when life gets tough.
“It was the advice that my old man gave me and I’m giving it on to my kids, and the core message is that if you’re going to go out there and fight for whatever you’re going to fight for, if you’re going to run, run with everything you have.” said Johnston.
“Having Ronald McDonald House come on board- its the kids and the families in Ronald McDonald House that are some of the biggest fighters in the world.”
“They’re out there battling things and going through some of the most difficult situations that you could ever imagine.”
“I see the great work they do for kids and their families, and it truly is a sanctuary that they create.”
Johnston is offering everyone the opportunity to purchase his new song ‘Hell Boy’ before it is officially released through a donation to Ronald McDonald House. He is hoping to reach a goal of $10,000.
“If you want to hear that song before anybody else, you can donate whatever you want from $1 to $10 to $100 and you can get ‘Hell Boy’ right now, and every single cent is going directly to the Ronald McDonald House.”
Fans will have the opportunity to run the last 1km with him, starting at 7:30 am from on Peel Street directly outside Woolworths, opposite Red Rooster and Woolworths.
Each evening along the way, Johnston will host pop-up campfire acoustic performances for local communities – stop offs will include Uralla, Bendemeer, Moonbi, and Kootingal and locations of the performances will be shared on James’ social media each day.
To purchase ‘Hell Boy’ or to donate to Ronald McDonald House Tamworth head to jamesjohnston.com.
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