Bad boy makes it

Press, 25 February 1986, Page 17

Bad boy makes it

Don Johnson, who plays Detective Sonny Crockett in “Miami Vice” (One, 8.30), got his big break when a high school teacher tossed him out of a business administration course for sleeping in class. Needing one more credit to graduate he chose drama, and was given the male lead in “West Side Story” after his first audition. From there he won a rare full scholarship to the University of Kansas, where he studied for about two years before joining the prestigious American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. “I loved the attention the theatre gave you,” says Johnson. "I hated to leave sports (he could have had a career in professional football), but I was bitten by the bug and grew to love the ‘let’s-put-on-a-show’ attitude.” Television’s gain may be music’s loss because Johnson, “a country boy all the way,” grew up singing in his grand-

father’s backwoods church choir and has written several songs, two of which made their way onto the Allman brothers’ gold album, “Enlightened Rouges.” “Although I still perform occasionally I am disillusioned with the music business; I feel it is

heading in a technotheatric direction. "I’m more into the content, drive and purity of music. I originally needed something to occupy my creative energy and song writing was good for that.”

Of his role in “Miami Vice” he says he understands Sonny Crockett. “I have the same sensibilities,” he says. “He’s a hard-partying guy and I can identify with that because I used to do it.

“But as I get older, I’m getting conservative. I’m more into domestic life nowadays.”