Jonni Lightfoot was born in 1973, in Salt Lake City, Utah. He comes from a long line of musicians. His grandfather, a multi-instrument player, played local square dances and was the pre-show entertainment before movies, playing guitar, banjo, fiddle, harmonica and mandolin. Jonni's father played guitar for talent shows and solo concerts. Jonni loved to go to his brother's room to listen to him practice guitar and to listen to records with him. It was his older brother, Steve, who first introduced him to bands like Kiss, Van Halen, and Aerosmith in the late 70's, which are some of Jonni's favorite bands to this day. Jonni took a liking to music, but sports were his first love at that time. He played baseball for many years and made the All-Star team four years in a row. Then, in the summer of 1984, Jonni went over to his best friend's house only to find the rest of his friends talking about starting a band. He chose the bass guitar as his instrument and quickly fell in love with the idea of playing music. Sports fell to the side and music consumed him. Jonni started taking private lessons and began writing his own music. Four months later his band released their first demo. Jonni also found interest in other instruments. He taught himself guitar, piano and keyboard, all of which he stills plays to this day.Fast-forward nine years. Jonni quickly became a first call studio musician performing on many local CDs and playing in live bands. As time went on Jonni was in and out of bands around the Salt Lake City area, and soon discovered a new love...audio engineering. Around that same time Jonni started experimenting with altered tunings and special light gauge strings on his basses where he feels he finally found his sound. He spent time in his home studio and started recording his debut solo CD, "Copper Street Fair". In 1996 Jonni received great feedback from "Copper Street Fair", including "Most Innovated New Artist" from Bass Frontiers magazine for his use of the "Piccolo Bass". Shortly thereafter he became an artist for Zon Guitars. Joe Zon and Jonni designed a bass that worked with Jonni's "Piccolo bass playing".After performing with his band for a couple of years, Jonni decided to take a little break from performing live. He found time to explore another long time goal of his...scuba diving. "I went through the dive program at The University of Utah and fell in love with diving, the ocean, and that is where I met my wife." Jonni then taught scuba diving at the University of Utah for three years until Graham Russell from Air Supply, who was looking for a new younger bass player to join the band, approached him. Graham had asked around about bass players in the Salt Lake City area and Jonni's name kept coming up. Graham asked Jonni to join Air Supply in 2001 and this was exactly what Jonni was looking for. "A funny thing about how I joined the band. Neither Graham nor anyone in the band had heard me play or heard my CD. The first time they heard me play was on stage in South Dakota on a month long tour with Air Supply. Graham just took a chance on a feeling he had about me...and here I am!" During the time that Jonni joined Air Supply he had already started recording his second CD, "Pendulum". "Pendulum" was a break through CD for Jonni. He found his new sound, using the bass as a lead instrument in a band with two bass players. "I have always loved being a more up front bass player but when I would solo the low end would drop out of the song. I found that I really missed that, so I hired a bass player to do just that...play bass, which allowed me more freedom to explore my instrument over the music. I could not imagine my band without the second bass player in it."After a couple of years with Air Supply, Jonni became the band's studio engineer and Musical Director. Jonni has recorded and worked on Air Supply's "Heart Of The Rose", "Celestine Travelers", "Petalbump", "Across the Concert Sky", "Love Songs", "30 Years Ago Today Live", "The Singer And The Song", and is working closely with Graham and Russell on the next Air Supply CD, "Zed", which includes a song Jonni and Graham wrote together. Jonni has been performing all over the world with Air Supply and has hit another milestone in his career - performing in Cuba (Air Supply is the second Western act ever to play Cuba) to 175,000 people in 2005. Jonni's newest CD, "Blu", features some of his greatest work to date. "Blu" features Graham Russell and the rest of the guys from Air Supply on it, along with Grammy nominated bass legend Michael Manring. "I am so pleased with Blu...it turned out just how I imagined it." He also said, "Working with Michael Manring was another dream come true for me...he has always been a hero of mine and to go toe to toe with him on the CD was amazing." Next up for Jonni, he and Joe Zon from Zon Guitars have started prototypes of the "Jonni Lightfoot Signature Bass". Jonni has also started recording his fourth CD and will be touring the planet with Air Supply and his own band. It looks like another busy year for Jonni Lightfoot.
Jonni Lightfoot was born in 1973, in Salt Lake City, Utah. He comes from a long line of musicians. His grandfather, a multi-instrument player, played local square dances and was the pre-show entertainment before movies, playing guitar, banjo, fiddle, harmonica and mandolin. Jonni's father played guitar for talent shows and solo concerts. Jonni loved to go to his brother's room to listen to him practice guitar and to listen to records with him. It was his older brother, Steve, who first introduced him to bands like Kiss, Van Halen, and Aerosmith in the late 70's, which are some of Jonni's favorite bands to this day. Jonni took a liking to music, but sports were his first love at that time. He played baseball for many years and made the All-Star team four years in a row. Then, in the summer of 1984, Jonni went over to his best friend's house only to find the rest of his friends talking about starting a band. He chose the bass guitar as his instrument and quickly fell in love with the idea of playing music. Sports fell to the side and music consumed him. Jonni started taking private lessons and began writing his own music. Four months later his band released their first demo. Jonni also found interest in other instruments. He taught himself guitar, piano and keyboard, all of which he stills plays to this day.Fast-forward nine years. Jonni quickly became a first call studio musician performing on many local CDs and playing in live bands. As time went on Jonni was in and out of bands around the Salt Lake City area, and soon discovered a new love...audio engineering. Around that same time Jonni started experimenting with altered tunings and special light gauge strings on his basses where he feels he finally found his sound. He spent time in his home studio and started recording his debut solo CD, "Copper Street Fair". In 1996 Jonni received great feedback from "Copper Street Fair", including "Most Innovated New Artist" from Bass Frontiers magazine for his use of the "Piccolo Bass". Shortly thereafter he became an artist for Zon Guitars. Joe Zon and Jonni designed a bass that worked with Jonni's "Piccolo bass playing".
After performing with his band for a couple of years, Jonni decided to take a little break from performing live. He found time to explore another long time goal of his...scuba diving. "I went through the dive program at The University of Utah and fell in love with diving, the ocean, and that is where I met my wife." Jonni then taught scuba diving at the University of Utah for three years until Graham Russell from Air Supply, who was looking for a new younger bass player to join the band, approached him. Graham had asked around about bass players in the Salt Lake City area and Jonni's name kept coming up. Graham asked Jonni to join Air Supply in 2001 and this was exactly what Jonni was looking for. "A funny thing about how I joined the band. Neither Graham nor anyone in the band had heard me play or heard my CD. The first time they heard me play was on stage in South Dakota on a month long tour with Air Supply. Graham just took a chance on a feeling he had about me...and here I am!" During the time that Jonni joined Air Supply he had already started recording his second CD, "Pendulum". "Pendulum" was a break through CD for Jonni. He found his new sound, using the bass as a lead instrument in a band with two bass players. "I have always loved being a more up front bass player but when I would solo the low end would drop out of the song. I found that I really missed that, so I hired a bass player to do just that...play bass, which allowed me more freedom to explore my instrument over the music. I could not imagine my band without the second bass player in it."
After a couple of years with Air Supply, Jonni became the band's studio engineer and Musical Director. Jonni has recorded and worked on Air Supply's "Heart Of The Rose", "Celestine Travelers", "Petalbump", "Across the Concert Sky", "Love Songs", "30 Years Ago Today Live", "The Singer And The Song", and is working closely with Graham and Russell on the next Air Supply CD, "Zed", which includes a song Jonni and Graham wrote together. Jonni has been performing all over the world with Air Supply and has hit another milestone in his career - performing in Cuba (Air Supply is the second Western act ever to play Cuba) to 175,000 people in 2005. Jonni's newest CD, "Blu", features some of his greatest work to date. "Blu" features Graham Russell and the rest of the guys from Air Supply on it, along with Grammy nominated bass legend Michael Manring. "I am so pleased with Blu...it turned out just how I imagined it." He also said, "Working with Michael Manring was another dream come true for me...he has always been a hero of mine and to go toe to toe with him on the CD was amazing." Next up for Jonni, he and Joe Zon from Zon Guitars have started prototypes of the "Jonni Lightfoot Signature Bass". Jonni has also started recording his fourth CD and will be touring the planet with Air Supply and his own band. It looks like another busy year for Jonni Lightfoot.