Shane’s Rock Challenge: JOHNNY DIESEL & THE INJECTORS – 1989 – JOHNNY DIESEL & THE INJECTORS

Shane | 9 May 2014 | Reply

Shane’s Rock Challenge: JOHNNY DIESEL & THE INJECTORS – 1989 – JOHNNY DIESEL & THE INJECTORS
8/10

How did a kid barely out of his teens manage to put together a blues rock band that specialised in soulful vocals and catchy hooks, and catapult it to the penultimate spot on the Australian album charts in 1989 – a time far more reknowned for Guns n’ Roses and Poison than anything of this ilk?

Well, it starts with the family Lizotte emigrating from America in 1971 with the five year old Mark and his six brothers & sisters, eventually settling in Perth, Western Australia. Dad was a musician, playing sax professionally for many years, and soul and R&B records were a mainstay in the house.

Fast forward to the late 80’s, when Lizotte had an epiphany one day in Maths class that went something along the lines of ‘screw this shit, I wanna rock!’

Pouring those childhood influences into his guitar playing and singing, he formed Johnny Diesel & The Injectors, adopting his stage name almost by accident after a joke applied to bassist John Dalziel who had one child and another on the way. (‘injector’, geddit?) Before anyone knew it, they were being managed by The Angels’ drummer Brent Eccles and Lizotte WAS Johnny Diesel – later shortened just to Diesel.

Enlisting Terry Manning to produce the record was a masterstroke – the veteran of many a George Thorogood & The Destroyers album, as well as Joe Cocker, Joe Walsh, Molly Hatchet, Al green, Jason & The Scorchers and many more knew exactly how to get the best out of the young, tight but studio-raw band.

The result was perfect for the time: blues rock with a touch of soulful R&B, commercial enough for radio, but still guitary enough to keep the rockers more than happy.

Lookin’ For Love, Cry In Shame, Don’t Need Love and Soul Revival all stand out as near-classics, songs which sound infinitely more mature than the ragtag bunch of youngsters which recorded them.

By the time the album was released Diesel had been tapped to play on (soon-to-be Brother-in-law) Jimmy Barnes’ Freight Train Heart and live Barnestorming albums, and disbanded The Injectors in favour of a solo deal, and that was something like 12 or 13 studio albums ago.

By Shane Pinnegar