Amiyah Golden
Words and photos by Amiyah Golden
“As a very young child, probably around 5 years old, I saw my mother in the leading role in a musical play that was being put on by a local amateur acting group that she was — unbeknownst to me — a member of. When I saw her sing and move about the stage with such grace, I immediately thought, ‘I can do that! I want to do that!’ I was fascinated by my mother’s talent that I’d never seen, and her singing voice that I rarely heard. I fantasized about being in plays and singing as [my] mother did so naturally. I always loved music as a child and when I was very young, I started bothering my parents to get me an instrument. I started school when I was five and the school had a piano. I played on it — horribly — so much so that after my first grade they ended up forbidding me from playing it while in second grade. Finally, on my seventh birthday, my parents and an uncle gave me a piano. I began playing and taking lessons and loved it. After that, I was hooked and I couldn’t stop thinking about music, singing songs and writing down my own lyrics. It didn’t take long for me to start collaborating with other kids who were also into music.”
This is the story of John O’Brien.
The establishing shot of a film that features resilience, passion, trials and triumph.
The story of a local artist who strives to spread joy through his sound.
I met with O’Brien where we discussed his life from his battle with cancer to recording at the same studio on Abbey Road as The Beatles once did. O’Brien instantly captivated me with the many tales he had stored in his pocket — and the beacon of light that shined within him.
“I was the oldest of seven children,” recalled O’Brien. “My mother was creative and spent her time doing oil paintings and acting in local theatrical productions. There was always music playing in the house. We listened to all kinds of different music, and on the holidays the music never stopped except maybe for when we went to bed.”
O’Brien’s appreciation of the arts was instilled in him from a very young age, so it wasn’t unexpected that he embraced the sound himself, but his true awakening occurred at a Boston Pops show.
“That was nuts, crazy and I came away from it thinking that I really had to keep playing music in one form or another for the rest of my life—so I have!” he recalled.
At age 9, O’Brien started his first band. “I learned to play guitar and started my own band with some local kids about two years before The Beatles even came out. We were doing material like The Dave Clark Five, The Kingston Trio and The Beach Boys,” stated O’Brien. “After that, I continued to perform in bands playing covers and traveling around with different musicians in different places and playing different types of music and styles. It didn’t matter how good or bad you were; it was about playing and loving all the people you would play music with.”
O’Brien even reckons that he’s amassed 10,000 gigs under his belt thus far.
This was just the catalyst for O’Brien’s future career in music, as he had formed several successful pop-rock bands in the New York area before migrating to St. Augustine.
Once acclimated to the coasts and the tides, O’Brien formed High Water, a Southern rock band. 
“After the band, I worked for six years in a popular music act which was a lot of fun as well and we had great audiences every time we played,” he said.
Between his mastery and sheer love for music, O’Brien shifted to a more personal endeavor when it came to his sound.
“Around 2016 I decided to stop doing covers altogether and began doing only my original music,” he added. “I told my band that if I ever had to play ‘Margaritaville’ again, they should just shoot me!”
So with his guitar in hand and his voice close by, O’Brien began playing at festivals throughout Florida.
“It was enlightening from the standpoint that I could see which of my songs really did light up the crowd and which songs didn’t,” he recalled.
Eventually, the pair — the guitar and the voice — turned into a trio with O’Brien adding a hand drummer on the congas to the mix… and then a bass player… and then a lead guitarist and then next thing you know a band was formed.
In 2019, they recorded O’Brien’s original album, “The Love You Need,” and in 2022, they recorded another album, “Love Vexations.” They embarked on a European tour that same year.
The two albums, collectively, have garnered more than six million streams, and O’Brien has a monthly listener count of 10.4k on Spotify alone.
O’Brien has left such a positive imprint on the world of music — and academics, as he has his doctoral degree and is a professor of graduate studies in public administration and government.
While O’Brien is versed in a slew of different genres from pop, rock, house, and simple folk music, he is leaning back to country and Southern rock for his upcoming projects.
“It’s such a lively genre of music, and you can say so many things that are important in the country song that’s hard to put into a rock or pop piece. I’ve also reminded myself how many really good country musicians there are in the Northeast Florida area and I think that the audiences love it as well,” O’Briend said. “So I’ve recently been working with pedal steel players and fiddle players and integrating that music into my songs as I’m producing them.”
O’Brien’s story is still being written, but the prior chapters of his life exhibit his unwavering character and his endless talents continuing to make it a story worth celebrating.
To keep up with O’Brien’s music, you can find him on Spotify.
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