Music and family are invariably tied together. Whether the inspiration of great songs like “We Are Family,” or by family bands like the Jackson 5, family is deeply ingrained into music’s DNA.
John Locklar, 59, is an El Cajon musician with a tale that involves family, shiny red shoes, and tiny duet partners. He spent the last 52 years with music in his veins. Family started him down that path and family brought him back.
Music and family are invariably tied together. Whether the inspiration of great songs like “We Are Family,” or by family bands like the Jackson 5, family is deeply ingrained into music’s DNA.
John Locklar, 59, is an El Cajon musician with a tale that involves family, shiny red shoes, and tiny duet partners. He spent the last 52 years with music in his veins. Family started him down that path and family brought him back.
Locklar’s first musical memory was brought on by his father, a country musician with troubles.
“One of my earliest memories, as a young child, is rolling over the bed and reaching underneath to strum a guitar that my father had underneath,” said Locklar.
While Locklar’s mother was not on board with the idea of a musical life, the seed was planted. After fifteen years, with stint in the Marines in between, Locklar began working as a roadie for a variety of bands, including rock giants Blue Oyster Cult. It was there that he saw music as an inevitable future.
“It was incredible to be out on the stage with these guys and to look out at the audience and to see that reaction,” he said. “These band were just rocking the place and while I wasn’t on stage in the way I wanted to be, it was just incredible. It just made the blood throughout your body tingle. I was hooked right there.”
With passion stirred in his heart, he knew it was time. In the late 80’s, Locklar and friends formed a rock cover band Mr. Red Shoes. Known for wearing shiny red shoes and interacting with crowds, his band found themselves rocking throughout San Diego for more than a decade.
Mr. Red Shoes did its fair share of rocking before tragedy struck. Locklar pulled away from that body tingling excitement and almost hung up his shiny red shoes for good. With his mother seriously ill, he dissolved the band.
But, music and family came together in a big way to bring him back to his guitar. His granddaughters, Reese Machado and Tara Pratt, took interest in their grandfather’s music. Reese, 7, even sang alongside him. Family found a way to bring him back to the stage.
“Now I do some acoustic stuff, with and for my granddaughters. Whether it’s me featuring them or writing songs about them, they are an influence,” said Locklar. “I have been looking for a female vocalist to start a duo with for so long, maybe I had her hiding right under my nose.”
Locklar has the acoustic styling of Dave Matthews and Jack Johnson. His smooth smoky voice floats over rhythmic guitar playing with lyrics that run the gamut of emotions.
“Most of my style has the acoustic rhythm underneath, even with a Santana-like lead on top. I just like that acoustic vibe. I like that sound underneath the percussion,” said Locklar. “That’s the general feel of the whole CD. Some of it is more soft and beautiful acoustic work that I wrote for the kids that they enjoy to put them to sleep. Some of the others have that more electric lead with that acoustic guitar playing underneath.”
With this album and return to the stage, he hopes to slowly sneak further into the background while he pushes others, preferably his granddaughters, into the spotlight.
“Just like the music continues, the instruments continue,” he said. “They go on from generation to generation and there are stories in there. My job is to perpetuate and pass that on to the next generation.”
His album, “French Toast and Stockings”, may or may not see full publication based on general interest in his performances and his future on stage. One thing is for sure, whatever Locklar decides, his family (whether his granddaughters who inspire him or his wife who supported him for 23 years) will be a major factor in his decision-making.
