Three years ago, after his last album, The Ballad of Dood & Juanita, Sturgill Simpson vowed never to return to music. This left fans with a void. As years passed, any inkling of hope for his return dwindled. However, on June 6 of this year, Simpson announced his return to the music scene under the new name of Johnny Blue Skies, along with his album Passage Du Desir.
In hopes of better understanding Simpson’s transformation, here are five facts about the artist’s new persona.
1. Near Career-Ending Injury & World Travel
At this point, it is no surprise that Simpson fled to Paris to find new musical insights and create his album. However, what is fascinating about his big move across the pond is what led him there: ruptured vocal cords while performing on Willie Nelson’s Outlaw Tour.
Unable to sing and create music, Simpson told his wife, “I gotta go because I’m having some dark ideas here,” he said in an interview with GQ. Thus, the now wandering Simpson took to Paris and Thailand as his creative incubator to create an album riddled with themes of home and rebirth—seemingly the exact process Simpson underwent in spite of his injury.
2. This Is Not the First Time We’ve Met Johnny Blue Skies
Despite this being Simpson’s biggest launch of his new name, it is not the first. In 2023, Diplo released his single “Use Me (Brutal Hearts)” in which Simpson, under his new pseudonym, sang and helped produce the single.
His actual name was featured on the song; however, so was Johnny Blue Skies. This left Simpson fans curious, but no one batted an eye at this easter egg, and Simpson successfully achieved what he does best-disappearing in plain sight.
3. Barroom Origins
As mentioned in the GQ interview, Simpson gave an insightful yet somewhat underwhelming story about how he first discovered the alias. He recalled a time when he was just starting to get his bearings as a musician at a bar in Lexington, Kentucky.
When he was about “21 years old, there used to be this bar in Lexington, Kentucky with this bartender named Dave who was like Silent Bob and Charles Bukowski,” and “every time I’d walk into his bar, he’d say, Johnny Blue Skies,” Simpson says. Not as prolific or philosophical as fans might have assumed, but very much in Simpson fashion to pick up the name so casually.
4. ‘Johnny Blue Skies’ the Pirate
In addition to its appearance on the Diplo song, another place where Simpson hinted at his new name was in the gatefold of Sailors Guide to Earth, which states, “Beware of the dread pirate Johnny Blue Skies.” We can only speculate what exactly Simpson is trying to allude to, but the pirate theme continues.
Simpson doubles down on the pirate imagery, as his new logo consists of two swashbuckling skeletons dueling. This image allegedly symbolizes a fight of duality, which is a notion that we fans know Simpson has been toiling with for quite some time.
5. In The End, It’s All About The Music
As we’ve seen with David Bowie and Ziggy Stardust, Eminem, and Slim Shady, artists often recreate themselves in order to stray away from the brand their name has become. By doing so they aim to see if people truly like their music or just their personality.
Simpson did just this, as when he’d hear his name, it seemed it “didn’t belong to [him]” and that “it was just a commodity or a brand,” he told GQ. So, to escape this over-commercialization of his former self, Johnny Blue Skies and his music were born.
Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images
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