The Invisible Man

Scatman John is someone I hope that I can be like. I don't think many have heard of Scatman John but he was born John Paul Larkin on March 13, 1942. This is his life story:

Born in El Monte, California, he suffered from a severe stutter "since [he] started talking", which led to an emotionally traumatic childhood. Even at the peak of his success in 1995, journalists reported that during interviews he "hardly finishes a sentence without repeating the phrase at least six or seven times". At age 12 he began to learn piano, and was introduced to the art of scat singing at 14 through records by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, amongst others. The piano provided him with a means of artistic expression to compensate for his speech difficulties. He remarked in a 1996 interview that "playing piano gave me a way to speak... I hid behind the piano because I was scared of talking."

He became a professional jazz pianist in the 1970s and '80s, playing many gigs in jazz clubs around Los Angeles. In 1986, he released the self-titled album John Larkin on the Transition label, copies of which are now extremely rare. He claimed to have "hundreds of them lying around in [his] closet at home". Around this time, alcoholism and drug addiction were also beginning to take a hold of his life. When fellow musician and friend Joe Farrell, who also had a drug problem, died of bone cancer in 1986, Larkin decided to beat his habits. He eventually did so, largely with the help of his new wife Judy, also a recovering alcoholic. "You have talent", she told him. "I'm going to make something out of you".

Larkin was mainly scared that listeners would realize he stuttered, so Judy suggested that he talk about it directly in his music. He recorded the first single, "Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop)", a song intended to inspire children who stuttered to overcome adversity. He adopted the new name and persona of Scatman John.

He later went on to release three albums total, the last one he worked on though he had a serious illness. December 3, 1999 Scatman John died in his LA home from lung cancer...sad to think that is 4 days before my birthday.

I love listening to Scatman's music, all of it is clean and most of it has some sort of moral to it. He overcame his stuttering to become one of the greatest muscians (in my book) in the world. So I devoted this post to him. Even though he is not here, his decisions continue to affect people. Rest in peace Scatman John.

"Im the invisible man, Im the invisible man incredible how you can see right through me Im the invisible man Im the invisible man Its criminal how I can see right through you"-The Invisble Man by Scatman John