John was born in Oadby, Leicester, England. John got his first guitar, a plastic "Tommy Steele" guitar, when he was seven. Though he was interested in music, while he was younger, his first love was his hobby of tinkering with electronics. When he was 11, John started saving his money from odd jobs and his paper route to buy himself an inexpensive acoustic guitar, and it didn't take long before John and his friends were playing together in one of their parent's garages.
John formed his first band "The Opposition" when he was 14, playing rhythm guitar for the group. A year later, when there was a vacancy in the band due to the bass player leaving, John decided to buy his first bass guitar, and fill that spot.
John took to the bass straight away, and outsiders would later remark that despite his quiet nature, he was clearly the most talented member of the Opposition. He played in the band until he was 17, deciding that his studies needed to come first. He left for Chelsea College, London, in 1969, intending to devote himself fully to his course in electrical engineering.
The music bug proved too much to resist however, and within a year, he had retreived his bass guitar and amp from Oadby, and began looking for a group to join. It was in 1971 when he came across a group called Queen, that history was born...
John got his first class BSc in 1972.
Despite the fact that a few videos show John singing, John maintains that he did not sing on any of the songs because he says he has a terrible voice and can't sing. The videos were done that way just for effect. In some concerts, he can also be seen singing into a microphone. Nothing specific has been said about this, but since John says he didn't sing, perhaps the microphones were not turned on or he wasn't really singing.
5' 11" (180.3 cm)
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