John Butler is many things to many people. To John's family he is a much loved husband, father, brother, and son. To his ever growing fan base it is purely about the musical journey, the groove of the Trio, the soul of the guitar and the honesty and integrity of John's lyrics. To emerging independent artists John is an inspiration and patron to young acts struggling to establish themselves in an increasingly difficult and diluted marketplace. For guitar players John has reignited interest in open tunings, slide-playing and down-home tone, and like his heroes singer/songwriter and slide great Jeff Lang and multi-instrumentalist virtuoso Bob Brozman, John has provided the motivation for many players to pick up the guitar, practice and get deep. To people everywhere who believe in social equity, justice and the human spirit John's words and actions have provided an audible, considered, independent voice and energy to many legitimate and universal concerns. For John however, the importance and focus has always been at the source, his family, his commitment, a voice, a guitar, a song, and the path they walk together.

John Butler was born in California and at age eleven swapped one West Coast lifestyle for a vastly different one when his family moved to Pinjarra in Western Australia. By age sixteen John was learning guitar alongside other family members, but he quickly found his affinity with the instrument and his own inspiration to excel, appreciating the cathartic and therapeutic nature that writing and singing his own songs brought to his life in a small country town. This early dedication to the instrument was rewarded soon after as John demonstrated enough discipline to inherit his grandfather's 1930s Dobro. This was a defining moment, now armed with a sense of linage and total commitment John began to define his own voice on the instrument via experimentation with open tunings and a gumbo of musical influences from Celtic folk to Indian ragas and from blues to reggae. John absorbed all of these until he was able to translate them through his own instrumental voice and he began to perform his own music busking in front of large crowds at the Fremantle markets.

John continued to work hard on both performing and developing the next part of his musical palette, a merger between his instrumental voice and singing voice. Inspired by pivotal moments along the way such as a Jeff Lang or a Tony McManus concert, John's vocals and lyrics became further inter-locked with his guitar and songwriting completing the puzzle and revealing an inspired and energetic picture.

John has recorded many albums since 1998. Many songs have reached Platinum status Australia.