I was first introduced to Daniel Johnston's music four years ago when I lived in Los Angeles, taking my inaugural listen to Johnston’s 1994 release, Fun, while crashing on a buddy’s couch. One of my best friends had recently passed away and the song “Life in Vain” brought me a much needed sense of comfort at that moment in my life. I have since reserved a special place in my heart for that title and the unlikely rock star who composed it.

Daniel Dale Johnston was born in 1961 in Sacramento, CA. He spent most of his childhood in West Virginia, then later found his way to Texas, where he became an almost mythic rock legend during the music movement that started in Austin during the early 1980s. He was first known for passing out homemade cassette tapes of his music, decorated with his idiosyncratic art work, which gained him enough of a cult following to land an appearance on MTV's The Cutting Edge in 1985.

In 1992 Kurt Cobain was photographed at the MTV Music Awards wearing a Daniel Johnston T-shirt, expanding Johnston's exposure to a nation-wide level. Johnston was living in a mental hospital at the time, receiving treatment for the manic depression that has challenged him for the majority of his life. Since then Johnston has continued to draw and compose music, becoming a figure most musicians are familiar with. Thanks to an ever-growing fan-base, he is an artist that more and more people are falling in love with -- which is a difficult thing not to do once you've heard him sing. Johnston is one of the most original voices in the present-day worlds of both music and art.

Despite the fact that he is almost 49 years old, there is a child-like honesty in his lyrics that is beautifully contradicted by his abilities to articulate those feelings with a consciousness that is usually reserved for adulthood. His voice mirrors the sincerity of his lyrics, rasping out with undeniable joy while making no attempt to hide the clear evidence of deep pains hovering just beneath the surface. The all-consuming battle between good and evil is a constant theme in his work, as is his inspiring belief in continuing the fight even when evil has an overwhelming upper hand. Tales of unrequited love are mixed with stories containing his favorite icons, including Captain America, Casper the Friendly Ghost, Frankenstein, and The Beatles. These same characters appear in his artwork, which ranges from cartoon characters to horror scenes. All of which is pure Daniel Johnston.

I recently went to see Daniel perform at the Highline Ballroom in New York City. He played to a sold-out house of fans eager to praise his every move. A few weeks later I was able to set up a phone interview with Daniel from his home in Waller, Texas. His father, who doubles as his manager, was unable to get him to the phone the first night I called, but we were able to connect on my second attempt.

Daniel Johnston: Hello?
Culture Catch: Hey, Daniel?
Daniel: Yeah. How ya doin'?
CC: Doing good. This is C. J. Thom, I write for Culture Catch here in New York City.
Daniel: Oh great!
CC: How are you doing?
Daniel: Oh, I'm doing pretty good. I just, ah... I was, ah... I forget what I was doing. I was getting ready to watch something but I can't remember what it was.

CC: I hope I'm not disturbing you.
Daniel: Oh no, no, no. I just watch videos a lot.
CC: What kinds of videos are you watching right now?
Daniel: Well, I like science fiction and monster movies the best.
CC: OK, great. That's actually one of the things I wanted to ask you about. So I understand you like the classic Universal horror characters, right?

Daniel: Those are the best. I mean King Kong, Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolf Man. When I was a kid that's all I used think about. You know? We'd go up to Pittsburgh from West Virginia most years to do Christmas shopping and I'd buy these short movies like "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man" edited down to five minutes, you know, and I'd watch it over and over again. Now I have all these movies and much, much more and I'm more of a fan than ever. [laughs]

CC: So what draws you to the monster movies?
Daniel: Well, it's just the way they filmed it so well. The artistry of it, you know?
CC: I'm a big fan of horror films myself. They're kind of an interesting thing to be drawn to and I was just wondering if there was anything...it's just the imagery-?

Daniel: Well, it's not really the gore. I don't really like gore films, you know, that you see these days. But a... yeah. I was always on the side of the monster too. [laughs]

CC: Me too, Daniel.
Daniel: Yeah. [laughs]
CC: Are there there any horror films that actually scare you or do you just like the ones that are fun?

Daniel: I, uh… I'm not really scared when I watch but something recently did freak me out a lot so I turned it off. I thought it was too much, you know. Every now and then you don’t really know what people are going to put on video. When it goes too far, the best you can do is just turn it off.

CC: What movie was that?
Daniel: They're killing the naked girls and it looks too real. It's more than I can stand, so I just turn it off, you know.

CC: I was wondering, along those lines, I know that when you turned down the deal with Elektra Records you had said you were scared of Metallica at the time. Did they intimidate you?

Daniel: That’s right. I was in a mental hospital and when my manager would come, even the official people from the record label and ah... it was on Queen's label too. Queen was also on that label. They're one of my favorites. But Metallica, I knew well, 'cause I had their albums too, but they scared me a lot. You know, Master of Puppets, I used to love that album but I was so scared of them...if I had been on the same label, at that time, I thought they might try to get me or something. That's another dumb thing that happened to me. I could have been a millionaire now. [laughs] And then another -- I turned down Steven Spielberg at one point... [laughs] I didn't want to be E.T.

CC: But you've still managed to put out a lot of wonderful music and get it out there to people.
Daniel: Well, I'm trying to, but it's hard to get it released. You know, I had these great big offers and I turned them down. I’ve decided next time someone makes an offer that big I'm not going to turn them down again.

CC: I know you've gone through a lot of different medications while you were trying to find a solution to your condition, but you found one that finally worked, right?

Daniel: I got on this medication, even the very next day I was out of bed and writing songs and everything. It's really a wonderful drug. As a manic-depressive I used to get so depressed for no reason, you know, no reason to be depressed, I would just feel so terrible. I finally conquered that and I'm a lot happier now.

CC: I'm really glad to hear that, Daniel. [Daniel laughs] I know that in the past you used to deliberately go off your medication 'cause you felt it enhanced your performances. Do you do that any more?

Daniel: No. I'm pretty much a prisoner of my family. I live next door right now, but my dad makes sure I get the right medication. Then every time I go on tour my brother comes with me 'cause he's the tour manager. And we have lots of fun. So they're watching my medication and making sure I don't have too much sugar. Stuff like that. And I feel great, you know. I'm rich...in the life, now, not like before. 'Cause when we go on tour my pay is I get to buy all the comic books I want. Up to four hundred dollars even, sometimes, every day, you know. So that's my reward. I frickin' love the comics.

CC: Are there any comic books that are on your list right now that are next in line to purchase?

Daniel: Yeah, I wanted to get the Marvel Comics Scary Reprint Series. When they had so many different, you know... "Where Monsters Dwell," "Where Creatures Roam," "Chamber of Darkness"... there's tons of them, you know. And they reprinted old horror stories and I really appreciate the art and everything about it. It's one of my favorites.

CC: You mentioned your family. I know in the past your family wasn't as supportive of your creative work and now they're very involved. How do you feel about that?

Daniel: I know it must have been hard for them to try to take or fathom even. When my records first came out, because they were all on chord organ and they got the album, they were like "what is this?" [laughs] So eventually I started recording with a band and they seem to treat me better about the music now.

CC: Do you feel they understand what you're trying to do now, creatively?
Daniel: Yeah. Especially my brother. My brother goes on tour with me and puts the bands together to do shows with and he's got some really great bands I've been playing with this year. I had a really great time. The last couple of concerts are some of my favorite concerts of all time. I really enjoyed it.

CC: I got a chance to catch you at your recent time at the Highline Ballroom here in New York City. I really enjoyed your performance. I noticed that when you're performing you tend to close your eyes. Why is that?

Daniel: Maybe it looks like I'm closing my eyes but I'm probably just reading my lyrics. It's hard to memorize. I have a hard time with memory, you know. I enjoy reading it when I sing it so I can interpret better.

CC: Karen O & The Kids recently covered your song "Worried Shoes" for the soundtrack of Where the Wild Things Are --

Daniel: I heard about that. That's great!

CC: Do you feel there's anything lost in your songs when it's not your voice singing them?

Daniel: No. It's all the better really. We can use the extra cash. [laughs] That's great.

CC: I know in the past, back when you were in Austin, you experimented with LSD. When was the last time you used non-prescription drugs?

Daniel: I mean, I've had a little bit... but not much. I freaked out so much I've just decided never to try acid or LSD again. [laugh] I was in a whole lot of trouble.

CC: Do you have any positive recollections of those experiments?

Daniel: It was fun, you know, to freak out, you know. Like it was a movie. But I... I would have enjoyed to watch somebody else's life other than my own. It was a nightmare. I just completely freaked out. It was a real scare.

CC: I’ve been there, so I know what that’s like.

Daniel: You take some LSD and then... everything starts to freak you out. You can really go crazy.

CC: You've been playing with a band in Waller called The Nightmares. Are there any plans to record an album with them?

Daniel: Oh, yeah. We're going to have one, in a few short months we plan to release a new one. So I'm very excited about it. And then lately we have a new record out on our own label, Is and Always Was. I'm really quite pleased with it. It's really great. It sounds like Beatle music. They really put a lot of it into the production.

CC: I really enjoyed your Beatle covers at the Highline concert.

Daniel: They talked me into doing it. At one point we were doing like four different Beatle covers. They insisted… the band. But it was fun.

CC: You picked a really tricky one in doing "A Day in the Life."

Daniel: Yeah. That was hilarious.

CC: I love how you handled the bridge.

Daniel: OK.

CC: There's been some talk about reuniting with Paul Leary from the Butthole Surfers to record Fun 2. What’s going on with that?

Daniel: I have a lot of songs and me and Paul were talking about getting together and trying to record at some point. And that would be a lot of fun.

CC: You sing about true love finding you in the end. Do you feel that love has found you?

Daniel: [pause] I hope so. It makes me feel like I have a greater cause. You know, like there's something worth living for. All I got to do is practice more so the shows will be better. I feel I have a little hope for myself that I could share that with everybody. That life isn't as bad as they say or something. 'Cause I know it's been bad for me before and since I'm cheered up a bit I thought I'd share it with everybody.

CC: I think you've done a great job with that. My friends wanted me to tell you how much they all love you and wanted to send their regards.

Daniel: Tell them I say hello.

CC: I certainly will. I have one more question for you, Daniel. It seems in many ways your music and your art and everything you do creatively combines into your greatest work, which is the legend of your life. In a lot of that I see this sort of depiction between good and evil, God and Satan. Where do you feel you are in that battle at this moment in your life?

Daniel: Well, ah… things are going really well. Like I said, we have the new album out. That makes me a lot more happy than not having anything released, you know. It gets me a little bit of attention. ‘Cause when I record I want people to hear it, I don't want it to just sit on a shelf. And so it's doing well, so I'm very optimistic about it. I'm even starting to write again because of it. So, you know, there’s always some kind of motivation with getting things released.

CC: I'm really excited to hear the new material that’s coming out and can't wait to see you on your next tour. I know you're going to Europe pretty soon.

Daniel: Yes. That's right. [laughs] Hey, well, thanks a lot for calling and send me a copy of the article if you can.

CC: I certainly will, Daniel. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me.

Daniel: No problem. Take care.

CC: You take care, Daniel. Bye.

Daniel: OK. Bye-bye.

In the past few years Johnston has been making a comeback and is reaching a far larger audience than in his days of passing out tapes in Austin. His music has been covered by artists including Beck, Tom Waits, Death Cab for Cutie, Bright Eyes, The Flaming Lips, and multiple other noteworthy musicians.

For more information on Daniel Johnston visit his website, www.hihowareyou.com or check out The Devil and Daniel Johnston on DVD. - C. Jefferson Thom

Mr. Thom lives in New York City and walks dogs, writes plays, and loves dissecting pop culture.