Daniel Johnston

Daniel Johnston was one of those rare artists who made you feel like you were eavesdropping on someone's diary, and somehow that felt like a privilege. His cassette-recorded songs — fragile, off-key, overflowing with longing — had no business being as powerful as they were, yet here we are, still talking about them years after his passing in 2019. He battled serious mental illness his entire life and poured every bit of it into his work without a filter, which is exactly why his music hit so hard. Kurt Cobain wore his T-shirt on the cover of Rolling Stone and that moment told you everything: this was a genuine outsider who insiders secretly wished they could be that honest. Painter, pianist, songwriter — he did it all on his own terms, and the lo-fi world owes him a debt it can never fully repay.

Name (English)

Daniel Johnston

Name (Japanese)

ダニエル・ジョンストン

Reading

だにえる・じょんすとん

Born

January 22, 1961 – September 10, 2019

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Aquarius / Ox

Origin

Sacramento, California, United States

Occupation

guitarist / singer / painter / pianist / songwriter

High school

Oak Glen High School

University

Abilene Christian University

Motto

Private

• Official sitehttps://www.hihowareyou.com
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%80%E3%83%8B%E3%82%A8%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BB%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A7%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B9%E3%83%88%E3%83%B3

Tags

• California
• guitarist
• singer
• painter

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.