Michael Johns life and biography

Michael Johns is an Australian singer-songwriter who finished in eighth place on the seventh season of a United States television series, American Idol, in 2008.

Johns was born Michael John Lee in Perth, Western Australia. He attended Newman College. As a teenager, Michael John Lee appeared as The Coachman in Pinocchio at the Regal Theatre and was a choir singer in Anything Goes at His Majesty's Theatre.

He moved to the United States in 1998 on a tennis scholarship and majored in drama at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton. He then lived in Atlanta, Georgia for six years, performing at local venues. He also played Australian rules football for the USAFL club Atlanta Kookaburras. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California with his Texan wife, Stacey Vuduris, who is an interior designer.

After traveling to Los Angeles to showcase for a number of labels in 2001, he formed a rock band called The Rising, where he met his long time girlfriend Jill Stephens, and performed on several television shows and at the opening of a Los Angeles Apple Store in 2003. The Rising produced an iTunes album Future Unknown. Although a number of the tracks received some airplay on radio in 2003, the album was not released on iTunes until he was on American Idol.

Johns auditioned for American Idol Season 7 at San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium in July 2007. At 28 years old, it was his first audition and last year of eligibility. He claimed to be an avid American Idol fan (having watched this show since the beginning) and was one of the first non-US citizens to make the Top 12. He finished eighth place in the Season 7 competition.

Following the show Johns performed on the American Idols LIVE! Tour 2008 which toured 53 cities from July 1, 2008 to September 13, 2008.

Shaun White's documentary DVD Don't Look Down features Johns singing all but one track, along with Rye Randa and Jeff Foxworth. Released on January 1, 2009 by Three Rings Project it consists of 17 songs, 10 of which are vocal.

Johns released a song, "Another Christmas," on December 12, 2008, which he penned in 2006 when circumstances kept him from returning to his native Australia for Christmas. Proceeds from the song were advertised as going to the Red Cross and MDA's ALS division.
In 2009, he released a single called Heart on my Sleeve and an album titled Hold back my Heart, which has sold 20,000 copies

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