Who is Johnny Stevens?
Johnny Stevens was born on 10 April 1986, in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA. He is a vocalist, guitarist and synthesizer player, best known for being the lead vocalist of the rock group Highly Suspect. The group has released numerous hits over the years, including their debut album “Mister Asylum” which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Album.
The Net Worth of Johnny Stevens
As of early-2020, Johnny Stevens has a net worth estimated to be over $4 million, earned through a successful career in the music industry. Since 2009, his main work has been with Highly Suspect, recording, releasing and touring with the band. The majority of wealth comes from the success of the group.
Early Life and Career Beginnings
Johnny grew up in Cape Cod alongside a brother. At a young age, he dreamed of finding a career in the music industry, though struggled to achieve his breakthrough for several years. As a young adult, he suffered a lot from panic attacks and moved around a lot until establishing the Brooklyn-based band Highly Suspect, alongside twin brothers Rich and Ryan Meyer, who were also his backing vocalists. Rich played the bass guitar while Ryan played the drums. They remained a trio for many years until recently adding Matt Kofos to the group.
Highly Suspect started as a cover band, but due to the lack of opportunities in New York, the group returned to the Cape Cod area to play in local bars, often doing cover songs of Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, and Sublime.
They also toured with other bands such as Sevendust, Monster Truck, and 10 Years. The trio had a lot of chemistry, stemming from the fact that they were all friends and classmates from Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School.
Music Breakthrough
In 2009, Highly Suspect released their first extended play (EP) called “First Offense” which marked their first effort at being more than just a cover band. Some of the songs included were “Smile On”, “Life’s a Fun Ride” and “Not Me”. A year later, they worked on another EP called “Then Mickey, Big Bear”, including “Gang Lion”.
The group didn’t find much success then, but they continued making music together, and in 2012 released their third EP called “The Worst Humans”, which featured the songs “The Go” and “Gumshoe”. A year later, their fourth EP “Black Ocean” appeared, featuring tracks such as “Guess What” and “Fuck Me Up.”
Highly Suspect then released a self-titled compilation album, which consisted of new singles along with songs taken from their previous releases, following which they went on a tour with other well-known bands such as Deftones, Haelstorm, and Chevelle. They also released their debut music video for “Lydia” through MTV.
In 2015, the band signed with 300 Entertainment, and then released “Mister Asylum” – their debut studio album – which would mark the start of the band gaining mainstream attention.
Recent Projects
“Mister Asylum” contained the title track “Lydia”, which reached fourth spot of the US Mainstream Rock Songs chart; they were also gaining popularity in other countries such as New Zealand, and were given an iTunes 2015 New Artist Spotlight, before releasing another single “Bloodfeather”, which reached the fifth spot of the US Mainstream Rock Songs chart.
Their debut album was highly successful, gaining a nomination for Best Rock Album at the 58th Grammy Awards, with the lead single also nominated, for Best Rock Song. The following year, the group released their sophomore studio album called “The Boy Who Died Wolfe”, which contained the single “My Name Is Human” and was highly successful, topping the Mainstream Rock Songs chart, and was later nominated for Best Rock Song during the subsequent Grammy Awards. Their next release “Little One” reached second spot of the same chart.
In 2018, Stevens began releasing teasers for a song for an upcoming album, one that was given the code “Teddy Bear”, but it wasn’t until a few months later that the group began officially working on the album. In mid-2019, their third album was announced, called “MCID”.
New Direction, Criticisms, and Controversies
Following the announcement of “MCID”, two singles were released to promote the album – “Upperdrugs” and “16” – and which showed most of the same rock influence and alternative rock music the band was known for. It also contained several hip-hop songs, such as “Tokyo Ghoul” which featured rapper Young Thug and debuted a new persona for Stevens called Terrible Johnny.
https://twitter.com/JohnnyStevens/status/1229917847297708032
Following this release, he confirmed that the album would contain hip-hop tracks, as the band had always been a fan of rap as seen in the influence of their many hit singles.
However, many of Highly Suspect’s fans didn’t take this new direction well, criticizing Stevens for turning the band into a hip hop group and not sticking to the music that made them popular. In turn, he lashed out at his critics, pushing them away – either they accepted this new music, or they could just turn around, calling his critics, fake fans. He continued to rile on them in subsequent interviews, but reiterated that the band didn’t leave rock music behind. However, his attitude and the way he’s been alienating his fan base has led to negative opinions about him.
This comes as a surprise to some of his fans who’ve been there since the start, as they believed that he was turning over a new leaf, but being defensive about criticism shows that he hasn’t changed at all in terms of his attitude.
Personal Life
Johnny has been romantically linked to a woman named Kydids as seen on her Instagram page – this was after she posted a photo of the two spending time together on a date. It is not known if they are still together, though it is believed that she is close with the entire band, as she often joins them on tour. She promotes a lot of the band’s music, and even appears during some of their live performances.