John Sheldon Bio.

This is where I tell you about myself. I never liked doing this. I'm supposed to list all my accomplishments. I'm supposed to cherry pick things from my history in order to sell myself and establish credibility. But how do you measure that?

I am old enough to tell the truth, and cut the bullshit. I played in Van Morrison's band for 8 months when I was 17. I liked Van, but all my friends hated him. I wrote a song with him called "Domino" for which I never was credited. I am not bitter about this. I was only 17, and knew nothing about the music business.

James Taylor was a childhood friend of mine. He practically taught me how to play the guitar. He was like an older brother, and I was always trying to impress him, but I never could. He became famous. Years later, my sister managed to sit him down and play a song I had written called "September Grass". James recorded it and put it on his album "October Road". It is, I think, a beautiful song. I actually played some guitar on the song for JT, and during a break in the studio, I played him another song called "Bittersweet". We recorded that one together, and it ended up on a CD called "The Best of James Taylor". That was sheer luck. I've been paid around 250 thousand dollars for those songs so far, and I've spent most of it making a studio and doing music projects that don't make money. I still give guitar lessons and play gigs for 100 bucks. I set up my amp and crawl around the floor looking for somewhere to plug it in. I am one of the luckiest people I know.

Along with JT, the guitarists whom I copied, or tried to, were Steve Cropper, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Keith Richards, Grant Green, and a guy from Memphis named Lonnie Mack.

I don't believe in one god. God is everywhere, in everything and everybody. God is a presence. If you are present to yourself and your world, you are living in God and God in you. I don't understand why there's a bible that takes hundreds of pages to tell you that. I hate long-winded sermons that state the obvious.

I try to sit and do nothing for a while at least once a day.
For me, playing music is kind of like doing nothing. All I have to do is listen. It's the easiest thing in the world, and I'm grateful that I'm not dead and can hear music everywhere.

I have a wife and two daughters, but that's private.

To me, music is energy, and when you work with it, you can summon positive energy, or negative. I prefer positive energy, because it's more fun and you don't get a hangover. I hope you enjoy the music I have created. The best I can say about it is that it was all created with good intentions. Beyond that, judge for yourself. And don't ask me what kind it is, because I don't know. I heard and I played it. That's all.

If you have any questions, you can contact me through this web site, and I'll answer them as best I can. Stay in the light as much as possible. John Isaac Sheldon