John Charles Wiltshire-Butler (born 1 April 1975), professionally known as John Butler, is an American-Australian singer, songwriter, and music producer. He is the front man for the John Butler Trio, a roots and jam band that formed in Fremantle, Western Australia, in 1998.

The John Butler Trio has recorded five studio albums including three that have reached number one on the Australian charts: Sunrise Over Sea, Grand National and April Uprising. His recordings and live performances have met with critical praise and have garnered awards from the Australian Performing Right Association and Australian Recording Industry Association.

Butler was born in the United States and moved to Australia at an early age. He began playing the guitar at the age of sixteen. In 2002, Butler, along with several partners, formed their own record label. He is also the co-founder of a grant program that seeks to improve artistic diversity in his home country, Australia, where he resides with his wife and children.

John Charles Wiltshire-Butler was born on 1 April 1975 to an Australian father, Darryl Wiltshire-Butler, and an American mother, Barbara (née Butler).^[A] He was named after his paternal grandfather, John Wiltshire, a forestry worker who died fighting a bushfire in Nannup.^[1] Butler has British, Bulgarian, and Greek ancestry through his father. His genealogy was investigated on an episode of the SBS Television series Who Do You Think You Are?, which aired on 1 November 2009.^[2] The show traced his family history from his deceased grandfather's war diaries through to ancestors in Bulgaria and the events of the 1876 April Uprising.^[3]

In January 1986, after his parents divorced, Butler's father moved the family to Western Australia.^[2][3] They eventually settled in Pinjarra, a small country town, and Butler attended Pinjarra Primary School and Pinjarra Senior High School.^[4][5][6] He began playing guitar at the age of sixteen after his grandmother gave him a 1930s dobro belonging to his deceased grandfather.^[3][7] In 1996, he attended Curtin University in Perth and enrolled in an art teaching course, but eventually abandoned his studies to pursue a career in music.^[7][8] Some of his first musical performances were as a busker at the Fremantle Markets.^[9] Butler was also participant in the Western Australian skateboarding scene,^[10] and is recognised for his involvement with the internationally renowned "Woolstores" street spot in Fremantle.^[11]

John travelled to Encinitas, California, after high school, where he spent two years with his brother Jim and began his music career in a band called Vitamin. John Butler's first gig was 9 September 1994 at the Metaphor Cafe in Escondido, California. There Vitamin was written up and reviewed in Go magazine they performed all around the San Diego area and played one show in Houston, Texas opening for Dive, who later became Osmant between in 1995. Vitamin recorded two tracks, "Deadhorse" and "Mary Jane" in the Belly Up Studios in Solana Beach, California in 1994. Vitamin bandmate Ozzie Rea fronted Perth funk band, Proton. The two can be found on The Live at Mojo's CD and performed together on New Years Ever Y2K.^{[citation needed]} John Butler was a busker on the streets of Fremantle playing his own compositions.^[4][8] In mid-1996, he released a self-recorded cassette of his instrumentals, Searching for Heritage, which sold 3,000 copies. He played different styles of music including "Indian, Celtic, bluegrass and folk".^[12] Butler had his first paid performance in 1997 at the Seaview Hotel in Fremantle.^[13] In 1998, North Fremantle Mojo's club owner Phil Stevens hired Butler as a regular performer.^[14] Stevens became his manager and later his business partner.^[14]

On 29 June 2007, Butler gave a live solo performance at Twist and Shout Records in Denver, Colorado, which was released in January 2008 as an eight-track EP, One Small Step, with A$1 from each record sold being donated to Oxfam's "Close the Gap" campaign. One Small Step was Butler's first official solo release.^[28] At the ARIA Music Awards of 2007, Butler performed "Funky Tonight" in a collaboration with fellow Australian musician Keith Urban. Radio station, Triple J's listeners voted Grand National their favourite album for 2007.^[29]

"Ocean" garnered John Butler newfound success when recordings of live performances of the song went viral on the internet. Butler made a cameo appearance in 2009 Australian film, In Her Skin, as a busker. The film's soundtrack featured three songs by the John Butler Trio, "Ocean", "Caroline" and "What You Want".

"Ocean" by John Butler featured on the benefit album 'Surfing Medicine: Volume I' released in 2009 with Slightly Stoopid, The Pharcyde, and others raised enough funds for charity to conduct an international peer reviewed herbal cancer research and treatment publication in Journal of Ethnobiology and project by Indigenous leaders from Hawai'i, Jamaica and Africa in Kormantse territory of Ghana which led to a cover story about the 'Ocean' funded charity music project in a surf magazine that won 2 Silver Medals at the American Advertising Awards for best collateral material for any magazine issue and series in America in 2015.^[30] Kelly Slater also featured the track 'Ocean' for the charity album project with John Butler in a PSA he released to help promote the project.^[31]

In July 2009, Butler undertook a solo overseas tour commencing in North America, where he played at the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Rothbury Music Festival in Michigan and The Mile High Music Festival in Denver. In North America he sold out headline shows in Toronto and Los Angeles. In Europe, Butler played at the Folies Bergère in Paris and London's Union Chapel. He also performed at Cannes, Amsterdam and Antwerp.

Upon his return in August, he took part in the Cannot Buy My Soul concert at the Queensland Music Festival. Butler performed alongside other local musicians (including Paul Kelly, Missy Higgins, Troy Cassar-Daley, Clare Bowditch, Tex Perkins and Bernard Fanning) reinterpreting the catalogue of indigenous Australian musician Kev Carmody.^[32] Butler's interpretation of the song, "Thou Shalt Not Steal", was included on the compilation album, and later was featured on the iTunes Deluxe album of Grand National. Butler participated at the Garma Festival of Traditional Cultures located in Northeast Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.

In July 2002, Jarrah Records was created by Butler, members of fellow Western Australian act The Waifs and their common manager, Phil Stevens. Being a partner in a record label allowed Butler to maximise artistic control of his recordings.^[33]

Butler plays harmonica, didgeridoo, drums, lap-steel, banjo and amplified acoustic guitars and his custom-made, 11-string Maton guitar.^[34][35] Butler prefers the Maton custom 11-string guitar and often uses a Seymour Duncan SA-6 Mag Mic pick-up with a Marshall Amplification JMP Super Lead Head and a Marshall 4×12 cabinet. He uses a variety of electronic effects including distortion, reverb / delay and wah-wah pedal to achieve his unique sound.^[36] Butler uses long, pointed fibreglass fingernails for finger picking.^[37] Ocean's arrangement is similar to Salento pizzica.

Butler is an advocate of peace, environmental protection, and global harmony.^[38] He has supported The Wilderness Society and the Save Ningaloo Reef campaign.^[38]

In 2005, Butler and Caruana co-founded the JB Seed grant program – renamed as The Seed in 2010 – to support artistic expression and encourage the "social, cultural and artistic diversity in Australian society".^[39] The couple contributed $80,000 to establish the project.^[40] Other supporters include Paul Kelly, Correne Wilkie (Manager, The Cat Empire), Paul and Michelle Gilding (Ecoscorp), Maureen Ritchie, Missy Higgins, John Watson (Eleven Music), John Woodruff (JWM Productions), Sebastian Chase (MGM Distribution), Philip Stevens (Jarrah Records), The Waifs and Blue King Brown.^[41][42]

Butler is one of the largest supporters of the "Save The Kimberley" campaign in Australia and performed at the Save the Kimberley concert in Melbourne, Australia's Federation Square in October 2012.^[43] On 4 October 2012, Butler was joined by 150 people during a protest outside the BHP Billiton headquarters in Melbourne; the protest was in response to the corporation's involvement with a proposed James Price Point gas industrial complex in Western Australia's Kimberley region.^[44]

Butler performed at another concert in support of the Kimberley cause on 24 February 2013, with Missy Higgins also appearing again, with the event held at The Esplanade in Fremantle, Western Australia. Jarrah Records, the record label that Butler co-founded with The Waifs and Phil Stevens, worked in partnership with The Wilderness Society to stage the free event that also featured the band Ball Park Music and Bob Brown, former leader of the Australian Greens.^[45] A march to protest the proposed gas refinery construction at James Price Point accompanied the free concert and campaign supporters were photographed with banners and placards.^[46]

In response to the proposed dumping of around 3,000,000 cubic metres (110,000,000 cu ft) of dredged seabed onto the Great Barrier Reef,^[47] a legal fighting team was formed by World Wide Fund for Nature-Australia and the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) in late 2013/early 2014.^[48] The legal team received further support in April 2014, following the release of the "Sounds for the Reef" musical fundraising project. Produced by Straightup, the digital album features Butler, in addition to artists such as The Herd, Sietta, Missy Higgins, The Cat Empire, Fat Freddys Drop, The Bamboos (featuring Kylie Auldist) and Resin Dogs. Released on 7 April, the album's 21 songs were sold on the Bandcamp website.^[49][50]

Butler is against Coal Seam Gas (CSG) and gave a free supporting concert at the Bentley protesting the Northern Rivers of New South Wales, Australia, on 20 April 2014.

Butler supports freedom of West Papua on Republic of Indonesia.^[51]

Butler is married to Danielle Caruana, an Australian musician and vocalist who performs under the name of Mama Kin.^[52][53] They have two children, a daughter and a son. They also have an adopted son, Alex, who is also a musician.^[3][52]

After wearing dreadlocks for 13 years, Butler cut them off in early 2008.^[54] In an interview with the Herald Sun newspaper in 2008, Butler acknowledged that he had been referred to as the "million dollar hippie" in various articles and around his hometown in Australia.^[55] The nickname refers to his inclusion on the Business Review Weekly list of the 50 richest entertainers in 2004, with reported earnings of A$2.4 million.^[40][56]

Prior to the release of the John Butler Trio's sixth album, Flesh and Blood, Butler explained:

I still care about everything I care about. But I don't know how to write another song about a greedy arsehole ruining the planet. I have done it. I started writing about the damage of war and the environment, but as you drill down deeper, move closer to the core of the heart, there are so many great stories to be had which aren't literally talking about a problem.^[25]

Butler also admitted to substance use: "I've never had any big addictions. I feel like I might smoke pot a bit too much, and I've done cigarettes." He affirmed to his audience that he is "normal" and is "going through all the same things" they are, and he asked that he not be placed on a "pedestal".^[25][26]

• Danielle Caruana

1. ^ For full name as John Charles Wiltshire-Butler see Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) search result for songwriter and performer of "Something's Gotta Give".^[74]
   • For full name as John Charles Butler see APRA search result for songwriter and performer of "All My Honey".^[75]
   • For date and place of birth see Matera.^[76]