Anyone ever heard of John Davis?

John Davis was the leader of the alternative band Superdrag in the 1990's. They had some success and even appeared on Conan's show in 1996. 

Sucked Out (before he was Christian, but gives you the idea of their style. I believe they toured with Green Day).



Anyway, John is now a Christian artist. He still performs with Superdrag but has also released several Christian albums.




I didn't realize John was a musician in a famous band, much less a Christian musician.... To me John is a kid, freshman to be exact. I was a senior in high school in 1989 and one of my "easy" classes was art. So I signed up and it was a class full of freshman. One of them was John Davis. We had some great musical discussion at the time. I remember discussing GNR "Lies" and what a departure it was from Appetite. My high school girlfriend was also in that class so I didn't have much time for my freshman friend. I graduated that May and never saw him again, until recently.... Online that is when i was looking up my high school in wiki and it had a list of "famous people". I saw John's name and laughed and thought "that goofy kid? what did he go on to do?". So I looked him up and I remembered Superdrag from my days at UT and didn't even know they were a local band. He probably wouldn't remember me and that isn't important anyway. I'm just happy he's a believer.

Here's an article about him here:

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From Wiki:
Davis' primary roles in the band were that of songwriter, singer and lead guitarist. By the time Superdrag was beginning work on their fourth full-length record, Davis was an alcoholic. One night as Davis was driving, he claimed he felt the presence of God. "At first, I started to feel really uncomfortable," he tells The 700 Club. "I just started to feel funny, and I didn't really know why. The next thing I knew, for lack of a better term, I just went into a cold sweat. All of a sudden, I just knew that God was dealing with me. I would compare it to a car going from zero to 60. It was like going from zero conviction, to maximum conviction, in a heartbeat. I knew that the void in my heart, my life, would never be filled with a liquor bottle, or anything else, but Him. I said, 'Lord, I'm tired of running. I'm tired. Give me peace.' It was like a cool breeze, a cool wave."^[2] Davis gave up alcohol at that moment, and turned his life to Christianity. This inspired the metaphoric title of Superdrag's fourth album, Last Call for Vitriol.

I'm a casual Superdrag/John Davis fan. He did some work with the Supertones on their last album pre-breakup and he's also worked with Ethan Luck on the My Red Hot Nightmare songs.


It's pretty straightforward alternarock stuff but very well written. And his voice is great.

I remember the band name (Superdrag) but I always thought them in terms of the Powerpop movement....that I really had no interest in .

Cool story though.

Staybrite wrote:

I remember the band name (Superdrag) but I always thought them in terms of the Powerpop movement....that I really had no interest in .

Cool story though.

Same here, it isn't my thing but was a popular sound during the 90's. I found it interesting too because it was a neat story for myself as well.

MikeInFla wrote:

I didn't realize John was a musician in a famous band, much less a Christian musician.... To me John is a kid, freshman to be exact. I was a senior in high school in 1989 and one of my "easy" classes was art...

Similar to how I never knew it until after I saw STP, but Scott Weiland was a year behind me until moving to CA after 9th grade.

After hearing the song above (I Need Someone) I decided to get his CD "Arigato". However, I decided the best way to purchase it was to buy it directly from him instead of Amazon or somewhere else. So I contacted him and told him we went to school together. He remembered the class and the teacher! He prob didn't remember me but he said "tell ya what, I'll just send you one for nothing" and he sent it to me. came in Sat and it is a quite enjoyable disc with some good Christ centered lyrics. 

I listened to a podcast over the weekend and during the interview he said Superdrag is definitely done because he doesn't feel the same now as he did then. He said he felt like a performer in a cover band, although it was him covering his own band. He said he didn't feel comfortable with all the drinking and partying at the club shows they did so he decided to put the band to rest for good and has no desire to bring it back. He is still active in many musical projects.

From his self titled album, this kind of reminds me of the Beatles.