Johnny Jones And The King Casuals

Soulful R&B Ensemble from the 1960s

Johnny Jones and the King Casuals were a Nashville, Tennessee, rhythm and blues group active in the 1960s. They were regular performers at the North Nashville club district, Printer's Alley clubs, as well as often serving as the house band for the local television program, Night Train. The band, which was originally named 'The King Kasuals', was founded in 1962 by Jimi Hendrix and bassist Billy Cox in Clarksville, Tennessee, United States, after the two were discharged from the adjacent Fort Campbell Army post, and eventually relocated to Nashville. Johnny Jones (born John Albert Jones, August 17, 1936, Eads, Tennessee) moved to Chicago where he practised the blues with Junior Wells and others. He moved back to Nashville in the early 1960s to become a session musician, and eventually assumed leadership of the King Casuals, circa 1964, replacing Hendrix. The band recorded a portfolio of singles in later years. The final recording featuring Jones was his 2001 solo release, Blues Is In the House. "Purple Haze" by Johnny Jones and the King Casuals was a popular R&B single, played in the Northern soul clubs of the Midlands and the North of England during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Johnny Jones died on October 14, 2009, at age 73.