Johnny Diesel - Comeback To Present

Comeback To Present

In June 1998, Diesel signed with Mammoth Records under his birth name, Mark Lizotte. He returned briefly to Australia in November to perform at the Mushroom 25 Live concert alongside Wilson, Barnes and Vika and Linda. He made a comeback to the Australian charts with his September 1999 album, Soul Lost Companion, which reached the top 20 and spawned the singles, "Dig" (top 20) and "Satellite". He returned to live in Australia in 2002, and released his next album Hear, under the Diesel moniker, in October.

On 10 October 2004, Andrew Denton interviewed Barnes on the ABC TV program Enough Rope, Diesel then performed with Barnes and his children, Eliza Jane, Jackie and Elly May. Around the same time, Diesel released Singled Out. An entirely acoustic overview of his career, it earned an ARIA nomination. Over the same period, he also worked with Barnes on his Double Happiness, including a duet on the track "Got You as a Friend" and providing musical backing including guitar, drums, bass guitar, percussion and keyboards on various tracks.

In 2006, Diesel released Coathanger Antennae, an album recorded in two months. Of it, he said "We approached it like the Stones or the Beatles used to do where we'd just put down a few takes live and then picked the ones that we all felt good about", emphasising the focus on live recording rather than studio polishing. Days Like These appeared in September 2008.

Diesel made guest appearances on the Australian leg of Dweezil Zappa's 2009 Zappa Plays Zappa Tour, playing guitar and vocals after Ray White's departure from Zappa's group.

Diesel has contibuted music to the 6 part "Bikies Wars: Brothers In Arms" drama series on Channel Ten. The first episode went to air on Tuesday 15 May 2012. Diesel's real name 'Mark Lizotte' is listed in the credits.