When I called Lollapalooza performer John Boydston for an interview recently, I got no answer.
Turns out he was mowing the lawn and couldn’t hear the phone.
Boydston, who fronts the band Daddy A Go Go, is not a young spoiled rock star but rather a self-described “suburban middle-age dad who just happens to spend a lot time in the basement making rock ‘n’ roll records.”
And what rock ‘n’ roll records they are. Three of his four basement kids’ rock albums have landed on Amazon’s yearly top 10 list of Best Kids CDs, and he was the recipient of a 2004 Parents’ Choice award. Plus, he has been asked to play Lollapalooza Saturday and Sunday, albeit in the Kidzapalooza family area.
Still, the fortysomething Atlanta father of two, who goofed around in a band during college, never even wrote a song before age 40, and he never really thought he would.
But about 10 years ago, things started to change: Boydston’s first child was born, prompting the longtime TV news producer to quit the business and become a full-time dad.
In his new job, Boydston watched both of his sons learn to walk. He watched them graduate from diapers to big boy pants. And one day, around the time his first son hit kindergarten, he watched as the tot came face-to-face with a shattering discovery: “that `Barney’ music is for babies.”
So naturally they turned to Dad’s collection of “Beatles records and surf music like Los Straitjackets,” Boydston recalled. “I noticed it was all very beat specific and danceable and so in my spare time, I started writing simple rock songs for them.”
Soon Boydston was performing the homemade ditties for his son’s kindergarten class, and to such a warm reception that the teacher suggested Boydston record them.
Holing up in his basement and playing nearly all the instruments himself, Boydston emerged after a few weeks with a collection of surfy, poppy, catchy tunes titled “Cool Songs for Cool Kids.” Songs bore names such as “Brush Your Teeth,” “Daddy’s Diaper Blues” and “Adventures in Carpool.”
“I’m a dad in my 40s, come on,” he says. “What am I gonna write about? Love? I wrote about what I knew. And that’s kids and being a parent and family life.”
Four CDs after his 1999 breakthrough, Boydston is still cranking out the same kind of smart, funny, ultra-catchy kid rock that landed him on the list to begin with. His latest release is called “Mojo A Go Go” and bears a sound that recalls The Ramones, Los Straitjackets and Springfield, Mo., roots rockers The Skeletons.
Most playlists are packed with originals and sprinkled with covers, such as Boydston’s own takes on “Go Speed Racer Go,” “Snoopy vs. The Red Baron,” and “Come On Get Happy,” which he says “I took the wimpiness out of.”
Despite his success, Boydston only does about 10 gigs a year, making his Chicago debut this weekend a rarity.
Because he plays most of the parts himself for his records, he doesn’t have a band. When he performs, he borrows a couple of sidemen or plays recorded tracks of bass and rhythm guitar.
His kids — now 10 and 13 — are pretty impressed that he’s been asked to play Lollapalooza, but he is coming out by himself (hoping to catch his favorite current band Spoon on the main stage) and then heading back home.
And even if this national exposure makes touring offers even more tempting, Boydston says he’ll be able to resist.
“It would be too ironic for me to suddenly be spending less time with my kids because of something that I started doing for them to begin with.”
