Johnny Keyser

Personal life

Keyser was born in Pompano Beach, Florida. When he was three years old, his parents divorced, and his father John and mother Cheryl shared joint custody, but Johnny lived primarily with his father. Johnny and his father formed a close relationship, "He's like my brother more than my Dad", he has said. Cheryl Plourde, Johnny's mother, is a pastor's wife and a mother of twelve.

He is a fourth-generation musician and was an all-star, four sport athlete in high school competing in football, baseball, soccer and track. He claims he learned to sing when he got his own car and began listening to his singing voice on a voice recorder his grandmother gave him as a present. Keyser has said, "It wasn't until I knew what I sounded like outside of my head, what others were hearing, that I could make any accurate adjustments to my voice."

He was a marketing major at the University of Central Florida and worked as a server why in school. Although he did not pursue music while in college, friends and coworkers would encourage him to sing at local karaoke bars.

Season 11

Keyser was first noticed when he auditioned for American Idol Season 11 in St. Louis, Missouri. His rendition of Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come" and vocal prowess moved all three judges, with the show's season-long ad campaign built around Jennifer Lopez's exhortations "You Know You're Gonna Be A Star, Right?" and "Keep Singing...". Despite his a cappella version of Amos Lee's "Dreamin'" in the Hollywood rounds, he was cut from the competition. Although when he and three others were announced as possible wildcard entries into the Final 25, Keyser was touted as the likely inclusion, but he was not chosen as the Wild Card to return on the show.

Season 12

Keyser came back for the twelfth season.

Solo career

Following his departure from American Idol, Keyser was approached by numerous music industry professionals interested in working with the raw new talent. Keyser wanted to produce and record an album. He quickly moved to Nashville where, under the counsel of his father John Keyser, he began to work with friends he made through American Idol, Wayne Caparas (who served as his manager and talent developer) and his daughter singer/songwriter Amber Caparas. Shortly upon their arrival in Nashville, Keyser was approached by Grammy-winning producer Bryan Lenox. They recorded the seven-track EP From Where I Stand. The songs were primarily written by Keyser and friend and fellow singer/songwriter Amber Caparas with additional co-writes with Wayne Caparas. It was released on May 16, 2012, to highly positive reviews, and he was asked to perform the title track "From Where I Stand" at the Fox 2 Studios in St. Louis on May 23. It reached #44 on the Billboard Heatseaker Albums charts. In their American Idol 10th Anniversary recap, Billboard Magazine recognized Keyser among just 69 contestants in the history of the show to hit the Billboard charts, and was the first contestant to ever accomplish this feat with an original album before the end of the season in which he competed.