Robert Johnson – 2014 INDUCTEE
Wisconsin native Robert “One-Man” Johnson received his first guitar at age 12 and taught himself from an old chord book. In 1958 he formed a band, the Debonaires, with 3 high school friends. During the 60s he also spent time with the Freedom Singers and The Last Fair Deal. In 1966, inspired by a performance by Jesse “Lone Cat” Fuller, Robert began practicing the simultaneous playing of guitar, harmonica, hi-hat cymbals and a homemade 12 string bass “foot piano.” In 1970, he began touring nationally as Robert “One-Man” Johnson and has been touring ever since. In 1972 he married his wife, Margery, an Iowa City native, and they settled and continue to live there, also spending summers at their lake cabin in Minnesota, when not on the road. Robert was honored in 1981 by Insider Magazine in Minneapolis as Male Soloist of the Year. He has released 10 albums on his own Housedog Music label between 1976 and 2013 and has appeared on “A Prairie Home Companion” 5 times. Over the past 40 years he has performed at clubs and festivals all over the U.S., as well as in Istanbul, Shanghai, Bangkok & Nagoya, and was featured in Heads, Hands and Feet: a Book of One-Man Bands by Dave Harris.
