Johnson is a long-time D.C. resident who worked with former go-go king Chuck Brown in the 1980s. A jack-of-all-trades, Johnson works in the music industry, public relations, owns the nonprofit Awaken to One Alliance and was even a drug and alcohol counselor.
You co-wrote “D.C. Don’t Stand for Dodge City,” the only go-go song to address the District’s rising violence in the ’80s? What inspired that?
It was one of those salient moments when people are just sick and tired of the pain and violence going on. A lot of go-go performances were just wrought with violence. People come in with weapons. … The nature of performance is really eclectic, call and response. You get a few people drunk … and it became a very dangerous thing to be part of. I think people were freaking out because that was their bread and butter, [and] it became scary. This was calling attention to it.
What do you get out of working in music?
With most people who do music, they don’t do it for the money. They do it because they love it. It is my form of creative expression. I’ve done artwork before, but my passion, my joy comes from creating music. But obviously you have to make a living to so I’ve [also] been working as a P.R. professional for years.
OK, so where does the drug counseling come in?
I worked as a data research analyst on a drug info systems [project], I did it through consulting work. … From there, I realized the war on drugs was not going to be won on the law enforcement side, it was going to be won — if at all — by lowering demand. … For five or six years, I worked as a drug treatment counselor. Every day is one crisis … and you just learn to live in that tornado.
— Liz Farmer
