When Harold Johnson II was just 2 years old, he was invited to watch his R&B singing father while he was on tour backing up a major star. In the opening number of the show at Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, legendary singer Diana Ross held little Harold in her arms as she sang “Reach Out and Touch”. From that astonishing moment to today, Harold’s life has been paved with music and touched by the heavens. At five, he was already playing drums in a kid’s band. At thirteen, he was playing piano, but never felt that he’d be as talented as his dad so he focused on songwriting. His voice and delivery have always put him in high places, singing backgrounds for The O’Jays on their album “Emotionally Yours”. You’ve seen him on the Arsenio Hall Show, at the Greek Theatre, and drumming for Ali Woodson on his gospel album.

In 1994 he started J Men Records and began looking for other talented people that he wanted to write for and produce. Instead, he quips, “I just kept finding talented, troubled youth and spent more time counseling them than recording them”. This turn of events came as no surprise considering that Harold Johnson II is the third generation of ministers in his family on both his mother’s and his father’s side. In keeping with his family’s calling, Harold studied for his Master’s degree, specializing in addiction disorders.

Feeling the call of patriotism, Harold joined the army and attended Fullerton Theological Seminary, serving as assistant Chaplin to the 419 th Combat Battalion. Even that position pulled him in two directions. With a Bible in one hand, and a gun in the other, Harold said, “It was fulfilling to minister to the veterans of the Iraq War”. But he kept needing to feel the music again. He frequently sang the National Anthem at Military events. It was impossible for him to give up, resulting in him singing the “Quality of Mercy” theme for the movie, “Dead Man Walking”.