Creepy John Thomas

An Australian guitarist who answers to John Thomas faces an uphill battle when it comes to standing out from the crowd, much like a fire hydrant on a crowded city street. Upon relocating to London the musician adopted the handle Creepy John Thomas, although some employers avoided the moniker in credits, occasionally conflating him with the British player John “J.T.” Thomas who entered Budgie’s lineup in 1978. Neither Commonwealth musician is the John Thomas heard on electric guitar for recordings by Joe Henderson and Jimmy McGriff.

Johnny Driver served as another alias for the same performer. His earliest commercial breakthrough arrived while writing songs for Melbourne’s the Flies, the group that scored Australian hits and opened shows for the Rolling Stones and Roy Orbison during their visits to the region. In 1969 British RCA issued the solo album Creepy John Thomas, followed by Brother Bat Bone on Teldec; both titles later appeared under the Fingerprint imprint, yet Thomas has publicly cautioned collectors that the reissues are unauthorized.

After those initial solo releases he lived roughly twelve months in San Francisco before heading back to London in the early 1970s to join the Edgar Broughton Band on guitar. Bandages, one of the two albums he recorded with the group, features his work alongside studio wizard Mike Oldfield. Prior to the formation of Eurythmics he also worked with Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox.

By the late 1970s Thomas had shifted again, this time settling in Berlin where he launched Johnny & the Drivers. He remained there for ten years and issued two albums, one each on Polydor and Phonogram. Upon his return to London he announced he was “planning his next attack,” though he soon turned to production work for other artists and eventually unveiled another solo effort titled Remember Me This Way.