As a young’un

Johnny Roquemore started playing music in the third grade when the music teacher came to his classroom and asked if anyone wanted to be in the school band. Over the next few years he was bored to tears playing the baritone horn. All that changed when, in high school, Roquemore joined the marching band and started playing at all the football games. Band members were the geeks of the world but he was in Heaven.

In Atlanta

The music scene was rocked by the sudden availability of guitars and drums in the mid-sixties and Roquemore took up bass and drums. His musical expression was limited in that area so he learned to sing, play guitar and harmonica, write songs and move from Atlanta, Georgia to Hollywood, California.

In Hollywood

Those were heady times on the west coast. Easy living, plenty of musical opportunities and finding Malibu where he stayed for the next thirty years honing his chops. Roquemore played the county fair circuit, hit all the coffee houses in Hollywood, played harmonica as a session musician, won some awards, cut quite a few albums, got on TV and radio, and lived on the same street as the Eagles and Barbra Streisand.

Back in Atlanta

Roquemore is a top solo act as well as the leader of the extremely popular band “Johnny Roquemore and the Apostles of Bluegrass.”

What Makes Him Roque

His musical influences are: Gilbert and Sullivan, Tom Lehrer, Doc Watson, John Prine, Stephen Foster, Jerell Lambert, Rev. Barry Darnell, Doctor Demento, Al Yankovic, Homer and Jethro, Martin D-28 SW, The Great American Food and Beverage Company, and California.