Jonny Lang

Singer

Birthday January 29, 1981

Birth Sign Aquarius

Birthplace Fargo, North Dakota, U.S.

Age 43 years old

Nationality United States

#23094 Most Popular

1958

On this tour, he played his Custom Shop Tele and the 1958 reissue Custom Shop Gibson Les Paul through a pair of modified Fender ’65 Deluxe Reverb amps.

Jonny also used an arbiter Fuzz Face and an Electro Harmonix POG for The Experience Hendrix tour.

1972

Jonny Lang, since the beginning with The Big Bang, has used a 1972 Fender Telecaster Thinline made by the Fender Custom Shop, as well as a 1958 reissue custom shop Gibson Les Paul in more recent years as his sound and style have grown and flourished.

His original Custom Shop Tele - with a black flamed maple top, flamed maple neck, pearl signature inlay and his trademark pinup girl character on the aft body was stolen some years ago.

He has added a couple more custom thin-line teles-all carrying the basic aesthetic motif, but with varying colors from a burnt orange/amber to a deep violet throughout the years since.

The 1972 Fender Telecaster Thin line is a semi-hollow spruce body, maple top, and a maple neck and fretboard.

He has not, however, sported the pearl "Jonny Lang" signature inlay since his original custom tele, but still stays true to his WWII-style pinup girl at body artwork.

Jonny's Telecasters have three Bill Lawrence Pickups (500L Neck, 500XL Bridge) with a 5-way pickup switch and a coil tap for accessing a single-coil tone.

1981

Jon Gordon Langseth Jr. (born January 29, 1981), known as Jonny Lang, is an American blues, gospel, rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist.

He has made five albums that have charted on the top 50 of the Billboard 200 chart and won a Grammy Award for Turn Around.

Jonny Lang was born in Fargo, North Dakota, United States, of Norwegian descent.

He started playing the guitar for his friends at age 12.

He played modern hits to the classics, even performing a rendition of Jimi Hendrix's version of the National Anthem.

Soon after his father took him to see the Bad Medicine Blues Band, one of the few blues bands in Fargo, Lang started taking guitar lessons from Ted Larsen, the band's guitar player.

Several months after Lang began, he joined the band, which was then renamed Kid Jonny Lang & The Big Bang.

Two years later A&M Records, then home of Janet Jackson and Soundgarden, was invited to come to see him at a live performance at Bunkers Bar in Minneapolis, and he was signed to the label becoming the latest in a trend of young blues guitarists that then included Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Derek Trucks.

The band moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and independently released the album Smokin' when Lang was 14.

1996

He was signed to A&M Records in 1996.

1997

He released Lie to Me on January 28, 1997.

1998

The next album, Wander this World, was released on October 20, 1998, and earned a Grammy nomination.

1999

In 1999 he was invited to play for a White House audience that included President and Mrs. Clinton.

Earlier that year he was selected by the newly elected Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura to perform at his Inaugural Ball.

2000

Lang also makes a cameo appearance in the film Blues Brothers 2000 as a janitor.

2003

This was followed by the more soulful Long Time Coming on October 14, 2003.

Lang also made a cover of Edgar Winter's "Dying to Live".

2004

In 2004, Eric Clapton asked Lang to play at the Crossroads Guitar Festival to raise money for the Crossroads Centre Antigua.

Lang also appears regularly as a part of the Experience Hendrix Tour, along with many other well-known guitarists to pay tribute to the deceased guitar legend.

2005

Lang has also used Audio tech Guitar Products ABC Selector CCM on his 2005 acoustic tour.

The guitar featured on the cover of Lie to Me is not a Telecaster but an original Fender Esquire.

Upon filming the music video for the title track "Lie to Me" which took place in a San Francisco music store, the store owner suggested Lang play the Esquire in the video.

Lang fell in love with the guitar and it was purchased and given to him as a gift.

He continues to use it, but not as often as his Custom Shop Telecaster and Signature Series Les Paul.

2006

Lang's 2006 album, the gospel-influenced Turn Around, won him his first Grammy Award.

In his earliest performing years, Lang always performed barefoot on stage because "it feels good" and once in tribute to Luther Allison, a friend who had recently died.

He has since given up that practice, after several near-accidents and electric shocks.

In more than ten years on the road, Lang has toured with the Rolling Stones, Buddy Guy, Beth Hart, Aerosmith, B.B. King, Blues Traveler, Jeff Beck and Sting.

2013

On September 17, 2013, Lang released his first studio album in seven years, Fight for My Soul.

2014

On his pedalboard for his 2014 tour was the Analog Man King of Tone, a Whirlwind The Bomb boost, a Visual Sound V2 Route 808, a Full tone Ultimate Octave, a JAM Pedals Tube Dreamer, and a Boss AW-3 Dynamic Wah.

2017

Signs was released on September 1, 2017 in Europe, and on September 8, in North America.

On January 12, 2021, it was announced that all confirmed concert dates were canceled until further notice because of a medical issue that affects Lang's singing.