We had such a good time catching up with Kevin Johnston aka Stan Lang! On this episode, learn why Kevin uses the stage name, how he earned a chocolate bar on his first-ever gig, and what inspired this “simple country” doctor to get back into making music and performing. He also gives us the best-yet answer to “describe your sound in 3 words!   

Stan Lang is the alias under which Oregon native Kevin Johnston writes. He lives in Burns Oregon, a little town in the middle of the southeastern corner of the Oregon HighDesert. For 23 years he has been a generalist country doctor to approximately 7,000 people who live in a county roughly the size of Massachusetts. 

In the late 80’s, he wrote music and played in a college hard rock band, but he says, “when we never got the magical call up to the big leagues,” he eventually decided he should spend moretime studying and less time playing. 

He got married, sold his music gear, had 4 kids, worked as a social worker, went back to medical school, then ended up in the country as a doctor. 

 About 10 years ago his best friend had a cardiac arrest at the gym and he was the Emergency physician on-cal. Unfortunately, he was unable to resuscitate his friend. The grueling nature of taking care of friends and neighbors and losing his best friend and then having to tell his wife and children left him lost and in a very dark place. 

He started playing music again, to work through his grief, and slowly started performing and writing again, this time from the perspective of pain lived and witnessed rather than therebellious superficial complaints of youth. 

During COVID, he decided that he would finally record in a proper studio and created the album "Super Hero Blues." He continues to practice medicine, performs in a couple of coverbands, and performs his original music. He writes intermittently when the mood strikes, and continues to play to keep a modicum of sanity. 

Check Stan out here: