Former Disco Biscuits LD Johnny R. Goode III Has Died

Innovative and influential lighting director Johnny R. Goode, who ran lights for The Disco Biscuits from 2002 through 2023, has died. The Disco Biscuits confirmed the tragic news on social media. No cause of death was announced.

“We’re absolutely devastated to hear of the passing of our brother and longtime Lighting Director, Johnny R. Goode,” wrote tDB. “Sending love to Johnny’s family and to everyone who knew and loved him. This is a massive loss to the music and lighting worlds, as well as a heartbreaking personal loss to everyone within and surrounding The Disco Biscuits community.”

Johnny R. Goode was raised in Alabama and attended Auburn University from 1997 – 2001. Alabama-based band Skydog Gypsy recruited Goode for web design and graphic work in 2000. Johnny taught himself how to program lights and served as Skydog Gypsy’s lighting director from 2000 through the start of 2002. It was Johnny R. Goode that helped Skydog Gypsy drummer Allen Aucoin land the audition that led to Aucoin joining the band in 2005.

Goode first met and met the Disco Biscuits in 1999 and became a huge fan of the band. Bisco bassist Marc Brownstein called Johnny ahead of the band’s 2001 Halloween show to discuss the prospect of Goode working with the Disco Biscuits. Johnny R. Goode got the gig as tDB lighting designer the following summer.

In 2003, Goode moved to Austin where he learned elements of lighting design he had been unable to teach himself. “A guy name[d] Hawk was the guy who taught me all the things I didn’t know and some things I thought I knew but was wrong,” Johnny told Listen Here Denver! in 2015. “He was an older guy that had worked for Willie Nelson, Lynyrd Skynyrd and bands like that. I toured around with him when I wasn’t doing shows with The Biscuits and learned from him as we went along,” he added.

Johnny R. Goode discussed his approach to lighting the Disco Biscuits in the same 2015 interview:

Instead of sitting down and syncing everything out, I hit the ground running and came up with themes to songs. Not necessarily the same look that would be stored in my desk and would look the same every time they play “Caterpillar” or “I-Man.” Mine was more like, “I-man” is going to be red, then white changes, and then blue for a drop and everything else in the middle is what I come up with in the moment. I think it fits [The Disco Biscuits] even more than some Jambands. I mean all Jambands jam, but some aren’t as free form and open ended with it. I felt like to try to pigeonhole the lights into a certain way that they would look like all the time wouldn’t be as exciting to me or the fans and, especially with this band, wouldn’t always work. I’m more actively operating the lights the whole show to follow the mood, the pace, the tempo of everything. So the energy helps me because I need it to follow the band and be into it. I’ve had chances to change and go to a more uniform, Queue Stack show but it just doesn’t work for me so I just can’t do it like that.”

Goode’s use of lasers were another distinctive element of his work. In early 2023, Johnny was hospitalized and treated for sepsis. The Bisco community rallied to raise over $37,000 via a crowdfunding campaign to help Goode pay his medical bills.

The Disco Biscuits and Johnny R. Goode parted ways last summer. Alex “Herm” Schneider came aboard full-time in December and is currently Bisco’s lighting director.

Andrew Cass, who worked with Goode as a member of tDB’s team from 2009 – 2021, and is a highly-skilled LD in his own right, weighed in on the loss of his friend and co-worker. Read Cass’ touching tribute below: