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Miami” and “Miami Don” were quickly discarded. Johnson and Sandford began fielding pitches from songwriters, many of whom seemed too dependent on Johnson’s association with Miami Vice. Soon, a group of session players, including bassist Mark Leonard and keyboardist Bill Champlin, materialized. To guide him through the process, he hired manager and record executive Danny Goldberg, who in turn enlisted Chas Sandford, a songwriter who had worked with Stevie Nicks and John Waite. He signed Johnson, then 36, to a deal on the spot. Yetnikoff believed Johnson’s fame and ardent fan following could help make an album a hit. The two began to discuss Johnson’s interest in music. After the show was a certifiable hit, he was at a party with CBS Records head Walter Yetnikoff. Johnson filmed a number of failed television pilots before scoring Miami Vice in 1984. NBC Television/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Throughout the 1970s, he had also hung out with The Doors and befriended Frank Zappa, getting a self-admitted education in the hedonism of the music scene without actually appearing on stage.ĭon Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas co-starred on Miami Vice for five seasons. (He could sing, play guitar a little, and write.) With Betts, he co-wrote two songs, “Blind Love” and “Can’t Take It With You,” for the band’s 1979 album, Enlightened Rogues. Johnson had always kept one eye on the music scene, using some of the proceeds from his acting jobs to pay for demo recordings. From there he took on small roles, including one in 1975's Return to Macon County, which also featured Dickey Betts, guitarist for the Allman Brothers. Impressing with a leading role in a production of West Side Story, he eventually won a drama scholarship to the University of Kansas and got a grant from the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, which led him to Hollywood.
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The attention-and occasional quarter-he received, he later said, may have sparked his interest in becoming an entertainer. He wasn’t sure the media or his audience would let him try.īefore he had ever aspired to become an actor, Johnson was performing solos for choir anthems at the Baptist church in his small hometown of Galena, Missouri. Johnson wanted to be taken seriously as a singer. It was made worse by the fact that Philip Michael Thomas, his co-star on Miami Vice, had also recorded an album, Living the Book of My Life, that had come and gone unceremoniously. Already, Johnson was feeling the heat applied to actors who attempt to sing. Johnson's problem was not with the show, or with his shoulder pads, but the fact that he was beginning to speak about his music career and his debut album, Heartbeat. He had a gun, but he also had fashion sense. Sporting pastel shirts and white suits, Johnson was a new breed of television authority figure. It was 1986, and Johnson was one of the hottest television stars of the era, starring as Miami cop Sonny Crockett on the hit NBC drama Miami Vice.