Former Bassist of Band The Black Crowes & Lynyrd Skynyrd

Johnny Colt | Biography

Commercial Developer & Co-Founder of Avatar Events Group. 

• By Yunil Tamrakar
• Update : March 24, 2022

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Johnny Colt is a bass guitar player who formerly played with the rock bands, The Black Crowes and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Who is Johnny Colt?

Johnny Colt is an American TV personality, bass guitar player, and journalist. He was born Charles Brandt on 1 May 1968 in North Carolina and spent his early years in Georgia.

Colt is widely recognized as the original bassist for The Black Crowes. He played in the band from 1989 to 1997 before forming Brand New Immortals in 1997.

From 2003 to 2006, Colt served as the bassist for the American modern rock band Train. After that, he took a brief break from the music industry, focusing on his career as a reporter.

In 2012, he joined Lynyrd Skynyrd as a bassist and worked there for around six years before departing in 2017. In addition, Colt has also previously played with other bands such as Rock Star Supernova and Asphalt Blaster.

His popularity from the Black Crowes

Colt is a founding member of The Black Crowes, formed in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1989. He got his big break as a member of the band.

Colt was the founding bassist and was a member of the band for four full-length albums, and toured broadly until leaving the band in 1997.

In an interview with the Atlanta Business Journal in 2016, Colt explored that being a memer of the Black Crows directed his career as a musician. He also added that he was performing with a local group in Atlanta before that band. 

"I played in a band in Atlanta with a couple of members from the Swinging Richards called The Law. One of the guys from Mother's Finest was in the band. We played four sets a night and traveled all over the Southeast. The Black Crowes were called Mr. Crowe's Garden at the time and I would go see them because the singer had a really good voice," he added. 

He also shared that even though he was younger than most founding members of the Crows he connected with them because of their common musical likings. 

"I was part of that culture. I was the young guy in their world so I connected with Chris and Rich even though Chris is older than I am. So, we started having them come out to our shows and Chris would get up and sing with us. That's how we became friends. Chris and I got along famously from the start," he explained. 

Later on, Colt went on to leave the band after gaining significant fame and momentum. However, he also reasoned his leaving added that the progression of their popularity did not match their music quality. In addition, he said that the band's direction wasn't the direction he wanted to go in.

Colt continued, "The music, in my opinion, at that point wasn't very good. The lifestyle people were leading wasn't for me. I had gotten sober and I needed to protect my sobriety. Creatively, the whole thing was stagnant and repetitive so it was time to vote for myself. It was time to invest in me, not in the group or that business anymore."

Joining and Leaving Lynyrd Skynyrd

Lynyrd Skynyrd was formed in 1964 in Jacksonville, Florida, and was put on hold for a decade when three band members, including Ronnie Van Zant and Steve Gaines, died in a plane crash in 1977. However, the band got reformed in 1987.

Colt joined Lynyrd Skynyrd in 2012 after the band lost their longtime bassist Leon Wilkeson and searched for a new bass player. He was well-known to them as a member of The Black Crowes.

At the time, Colt had left the music industry to pursue a career as a conflict reporter. He'd signed a deal with CNN and had no plans to return to music. However, Colt visited the band members, which led him to join the band and get back into the music industry. 

He also talked about meeting the band members in an interview with Guitar World in 2013. He said, "They were in the studio working on Last of a Dying Breed at the time. I saw Gary play guitar and I just hung with them. It sounds kind of corny, but in a way it was just kind of like coming home."

Colt left Lynyrd Skynyrd in 2017. The band's current members include Gary Rossington, Rickey Medlocke, Johnny Van Zant, Michael Cartellone, Mark Matejka, Peter Keys, and Keith Christopher.

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Other Artistic Work 

Besides Colt's music career, he is a journalist, TV star, yoga guru, commercial developer, and co-owner of the Avatar Events Group. 

Colt co-owns Avatar Events Group, an Atlanta-based back-line company he co-founded with Kenny Cresswell in 1995. It is a studio equipment rental, production, storage, and rehearsal space company that hosts various local and international bands and musicians.

Colt and Kenny later added a third partner in the company, Chris Connor, a CPA. Together, they later formed several businesses and invested heavily in real estate.

In 2016 with The Business Journals, Colt also talked about how Chris influenced and motivated them. He said, "When Chris became a partner at Avatar Events Group, which he still is today, he really started teaching us how to do real business like grown up, big boy business. Chris' participation bolstered us and empowered me into being able to make the moves to get into hardcore real estate."