By james art 
Charleston, West Virginia (WCHS) – West Virginia’s Music Hall of Fame announced the musician, visual artist and pioneer of Outsider Music, Daniel Johnston, as a rookie for 2025.
Johnston was the leader of Lo-Fi music and is widely influential in alternative and Indy music scenes, influencing Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, Jeff Tuidi of Wilco and Sonic Youth members. He was known for his “childhood” voice, and in particular struggled with mental health, which often reflected in his music.
Johnston was born in Sacramento, California in 1961 and grew up in New Cumberland, West Virginia, visiting Ouk Glen high school to Hankok County before moving to Austin, Texas, where he worked at McDonald’s. While working at the fast food restaurant in the 1980s, Johnston was giving his customers a demo cassettes with his music, which he recorded in his home with hand-painted covers.
After attracting the attention of the music scene in Austin through his own cartridges, he was included in a MTV show called “The Cutting Edge”, which further increased its popularity, which led to tours around the world.
With advancing age, his mental health worsens to such an extent that in 1990, while on an airplane piloted by his father, who heads to Western Virginia, Johnston received a manic episode, removes the switch from the light of the aircraft and causes the crash crash On the plane. Both he and his father survived.
His popularity reached new heights after Nirvana’s frontman was seen wearing a shirt laid on his 1983 album, Hi, How are you, which, like most of Johnston’s 20 editions, he painted himself. This attention will provide Johnston with a short contract with Atlantic Records, which will lead to his only big album on the label, “Fun” since 1994.
“Johnston’s pure and honest music influenced many artists, mostly Kurt Cobain, who was often seen wearing a T-shirt” Hi, how are you “and wrote in his diary that” Yip/Jump Music “is one of his favorite Albums, “Wvmhof said in a social media publication.
Johnston and his mental health problems were later subject to the 2005 documentary “The Devil and Daniel Johnston”, which will win the documentary directing award at the Sundance Film Festival that year.
Johnston died on September 11, 2019 from a heart attack at his home in Waller, Texas. In his honor, the Texas -based non -profit organization “HI, How are you Project”, named after his album Pivitol, was created to educate young people for the struggles for mental health through art and building a community.
Johnston will be introduced into the Hall of Fame of West Virginia, along with composer Cameron Level Malings, singer and songwriter Jeff Stevens and R&B The Groups The Valentinos and The Womack Brothers during a ceremony at the Charleston Cultural Center on April 12.