Born on January 1, 1929 in Natchez, Mississippi to Willie and Mahalia Bradford, a poor sharecropper family. Music was always in the home, though, as John’s mother was the church choir director and his father, Deaf Willie Bradford, is generally recognized as the pioneer of the Mississippi Delta blues “oboe” sound. Ironically, the defining moment in John’s life was waking up on April 1, 1965 and finding himself inexplicably living in Sacramento, California and tragically white. He changed his last name to Braselton in 1981 because he felt it gave him more “street cred”. That same year, John traded his father’s oboe for an electric bass and the rest is history.

“I struggled for awhile until I could find my own voice on the instrument,” he remembers, “But things really took off for me in ’86 when a friend gave me an amp.”

After decades of excruciating rehabilitation, John feels he has finally turned the corner and is on the road to recovering his groove. He credits James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Doghouse Riley, and JJ’s Blues for the opportunity to shed his affliction. In 2007 John founded the Please Don’t Dance Foundation to help those suffering from similar backgrounds. You may donate to this very worthy cause at any Doghouse Riley performance by putting money in the tip jar.

(Ed: Be sure to ask about Johnny Sunshine's Cajun Style Frozen Veggie Medley - it's a classic.)

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