Dr. J was born Gary Johnson in Bay City, Michigan. He was among the group of children born after World War II who became known as “baby boomers.” Johnson first became interested in rock and roll after seeing Elvis Presley’s debut on national television in 1956. This started him on a hobby that includes a collection of thousands of records, tapes, CDs, video tapes, DVDs, books, and magazines that deal with rock and roll music.
From 1969 to 2004, Johnson enjoyed a career as a dedicated educator. He came by his “Dr. J” nickname while coaching several championship basketball teams at Cramer Junior High School in Essexville, Michigan and he used rock and roll music in a number of creative ways in his classrooms over the years. But it was not until 1996, when he created the first multi-media rock and roll history course at the junior high level in Michigan and wrote the first edition of his Good Rockin’ Tonight textbook, that he discovered that the state did not have a hall of fame to honor its rock and roll artists and their recordings.
After first writing a proposal for the establishment of a Michigan hall of fame for the Uptown at River’s Edge Project in downtown Bay City, Dr. J went on to develop the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame website in 2004. For the next fifteen years, he wrote numerous stories about the state’s music history for the site, and he used an online voting system to induct Michigan artists and their recordings into the MRRL HOF.
Following his retirement from public education, he began what would become a nineteen-year career as an instructor of rock and roll history courses through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at both Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan and Rutgers University in New Jersey. His courses included presentations on topics such as Women in Rock, Doo Wop, and Motown as well as in-depth examinations of individual artists including Elvis Presley, Madonna, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and many more.
Check out Dr. J's book, "Good Rockin' Tonite - 119 Reasons I Love Rock & Roll"
In 2019, Johnson was invited to curate the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame exhibit at the Historical Museum of Bay County, located in downtown Bay City. Unveiled in 2022, the permanent addition to the museum features framed photos of HOF inductees, outstanding collections of rock and roll posters by renowned Michigan artists including Dennis Loren and Gary Grimshaw, an impressive display of autographed guitars, and assorted other memorabilia related to both Michigan’s and Bay County’s rock and roll history.
Of special note was Johnson’s acquisition of the original Frankie Lymon tombstone. It had been barred from being placed on the influential doo wop singer’s grave as a result of a famous court battle among the three women he had married, but none of whom he had divorced, over the rights to his hit song “Why Do Fools Fall In Love.” For over thirty-eight years the beautifully engraved headstone had been relegated to a display in the front window of a record store and then in the flower garden of a fan in New Jersey.
In early 2022, Dr. J self-published a short book titled Frankie Lymon’s Tombstone Blues. It revealed all the details of Lymon’s troubled life as well as the fascinating story surrounding his tombstone and how it ended up in Bay City. The priceless artifact is now a centerpiece of the museum’s rock and roll exhibit.
More recently, he and his son Brennan Johnson are in the process of producing “The Birth of Michigan Rock and Roll” video series for the museum’s intimate Robert and Anne Hachtel Theater. Each short film in the series serves to emphasize the importance of Michigan artists and their music in the rise of rock and roll music in the state and the world at large.
