John Lance

The journey to this point in John Lance's life and music is a unique one. His family had a big musical influence as everyone played or sang, with his sister Lynda K Lance becoming a Nashville recording artist right out of high school, and his brother Wayne an Opera singer.

As a youth, the Florida born and Pennsylvania raised singer/songwriter attended a unique school focused on the performance arts and by 14 was appearing on the legendary WWVA Jamboree in Wheeling, WV. “There were always these guitars around the house and one day I decided that I wanted to do something with them. My sister Lynda would send new music from Nashville and I would sit for hours analyzing it and playing along. I then played solo gigs for 4 hours a night from the time I was 14 or so until I was able to later work with local bands.”

In his late teens while meeting with record execs in Nashville something became glaringly obvious. "I saw that the road I was on was taking me miles away from my personal vision of the music I wanted to record someday." Lance says. "One guy actually asked me if I would consider becoming the "Country Paul Young", that still cracks me up! I couldn't imagine a gimmick like that lasting very long so I went back home and regrouped. I focused on my musicianship because I felt it would be the best way to satisfy my undying creative desires and still be a part of the music industry which I had grown to love so much.”

Then at 22 after working with local groups in the Pittsburgh area, Lance got an unusual phone call. “It was someone claiming to be Ray Stevens. I laughed and figured it was a joke my friends were pulling and sure enough it wasn't. Ray had heard some of my self produced demos and eventually hired me to play keyboards and travel, which took me down a really unexpected path.”

Stevens took his live show to Branson, Missouri and his new “state of the art” theatre in 1991. “I thought wow! This is certainly going to be an adventure! I quickly fell in love with the beauty of the Ozarks and after performing before 1.6 million people in the first three years with Stevens, I decided to stay a while.”

“Ray Stevens taught me so much about how people connect to music. He is an amazing talent, a tremendous musical mind and performer. Above all, he showed me that it's ok to just be yourself and let the world take you as you are.”

Lance has now done over 7,000 shows in Branson and has worked with some of the hottest. Along the way the Mensa member in him got to pursue other interests. While doing shows at night, he was a Private Investigator for ten years, but kept writing the songs he felt he would want to record someday. His sister Lynda and he focus on the accumulation of years of their yet unheard songs through the newly formed Lots A Lance Music (BMI).

“It's all come full circle now somehow, the things I started out doing on a cassette 4-track in my bedroom as a kid somehow brought me to this. It's been an interesting race and I can't wait to complete the next turn!”