John Butler Dreadlocks – Men’s Current Hairstyle

One musician who rose to great fame due to his prowess with the guitar and at the same time was also famous in terms of his signature dreadlocks is John Butler. Like the famous comedienne Whoopee Goldberg, his dreadlocks too were often spoken about and when he finally decided to cut them off in 2008 because he no longer enjoyed keeping them, one of the trademarks associated with him was gone forever. The other trademark was his long and painted acrylic fingernails, which he used so effectively to play the guitar and brought into being a unique finger picking style.

Born to parents of Australian and American nationalities in the US, John migrated for good to his father’s country Australia in 1986 after their divorce; at that time he was only ten years old. At sixteen, he took a fancy to the guitar and started learning it by making use of his grandfather’s guitar given to him by his grandmother. He still regards it as one of his most precious and dear possessions.

However, it was his exposure to open tunings at the Curtin University that enabled him to understand Celtic as well as Indian music, and the manner in which they are composed using a conventional guitar. He then started busking on Freemantle’s streets, where some of the compositions he had created on his own received a very strong and positive response. He then went on to release his first instrumental compositions cassette titled ‘Searching for Heritage’ in 1996 – this was recorded by him and sold more than 3000 copies; this gave him the confidence to pursue music and he did this by dropping out of the University, when just twenty-one.

It was through the encouragement of music promoter Phil Stevens (who had bought the album and gave Butler the opportunity to display his guitar playing skills at Mojos) that helped him to make a name for himself and brought him greater exposure. John played at a bar in North Freemantle on every second Tuesday of the month. It was now 1998 and he got the idea of launching his own album that would be recorded professionally.

Though his initial two albums named ‘John Butler’ and ‘JBT EP’ were not roaring successes, they obtained him very positive publicity and many people started talking about this new talent. He then finally received his dues with the album ‘Three’; thiswas created three years later, and a couple of tracks from this album earned a lot of radio time on one of Australia’s well-listened-to youth stations. In fact, they were given top ratings in the Top 100 compilation and that is how he then started making appearances at various major festivals, like the Woodford Folk Festival.

John Butler has also been very outspoken about his political convictions and has been pretty active with his efforts for environment protection, world peace and wildlife conservation. This has also helped him earn a lot of respect from people who loved the way he played the guitar.