Johnny Diesel - Early Years

Early Years

Diesel was born in 1966 in Fall River, Massachusetts, United States, and emigrated to Australia with his family, in November 1971. His father, Henry Bertram Lizotte (born 19 June 1929), and his mother, Theresa Rita (née Morin, born 18 January 1930) were parents of Jeannine, Bruce, Michael, Laura, Donna, Brian and Mark (later known as Johnny Diesel). They settled in Perth, Western Australia, where he later had a job pouring petrol—an experience that provided inspiration for his music. Henry was a professional saxophonist performing in the US and Australia, Diesel and his siblings were surrounded by music from an early age. While his siblings became teachers, Diesel eventually settled on electric guitar as his main instrument. He later recalled a time in Year 8 (c. 1980) at Scarborough Senior High School when he decided on a musical career: "I was trying to get my head around algebra and suddenly I thought: 'Hang on, I don't have to do this. I can play music as a job!'".

In his mid-teens, Diesel (as Mark Lizotte) performed with The Kind and Close Action. The Kind had Diesel with Denise DeMarchi, Suze DeMarchi, Dean Denton, Gary Dunn, John 'Yak' Sherrit and Boyd Wilson. Close Action included Diesel on guitar, Bernie Bremond on saxophone, John Heussenstamm on guitar and Sherrit on drums. In 1983 he joined Innocent Bystanders, a Perth pub rock band, and they released a single, "Lebanon" in 1984 with the line-up of Diesel, John "Tatt" Dalzell on bass guitar, Brett Keyser on vocals, Cliff Kinneen on keyboards and Sherrit on drums. Innocent Bystanders travelled to Sydney to record their second single, "Dangerous", released in July 1986. They had attracted the attention of hard rockers, The Angels, and went on to record another single and an album, Don't Go Looking Back, which was released later in 1986, however Diesel had already left the band.