The Man Who Grew Up in Pocahontas—and Became the WWE’s Most Legendary Musician

POCAHONTAS, Ark. – This weekend, perhaps the biggest star in the world will main event WrestleMania 40 – and he will enter the ring to theme music that was composed and produced by a man who grew up in Pocahontas.

Jim Johnston composed music for the WWE for 32 years – starting when it was still the WWF. Although he is widely known to devoted wrestling fans, his work was done behind the scenes and usually, in a recording studio. But there aren’t many who have had as big of an impact on sports entertainment, on either side of the camera, as Johnston.

Legendary stars like “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, The Rock, The Ultimate Warrior, and The Undertaker weren’t just famous for their work inside of the ring. They all had excellent entrances. In pro-wrestling, the entrance is as important as anything, because it excites the crowd for your appearance. To have a good entrance, you need a good theme song. Jim Johnston composed those songs into reality – and not just one or two. Johnston was responsible for almost all of the music the company produced and used for the 32 years he was there – and much of his music is still used to this day.

And his story began here in Northeast Arkansas.

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Early Beginnings

Wikipedia incorrectly states that Johnston was born in Pocahontas, but Johnston was actually born on June 19, 1952 in St. Louis, he told NEA Report. His father had worked there briefly after the war, but didn’t stay for long. According to Johnston, his father hated city life and said it was completely wrong for him. So, he returned home – and for the Johnstons, home was Pocahontas, Arkansas.

“We lived there for quite a number of years, where he bought the local Buick business,” Johnston said.

Johnston’s formative years were spent in Pocahontas, up until around the 1st grade, he said. Like any other Randolph County native of the time, he grew up spending time outdoors, riding around in the back of pickup trucks, going to farms, and enjoying the simple life.

“Oh my gosh – that was Heaven on earth, floating Eleven Point [River],” Johnston said. “Dad taught me to fly fish on that river.”

He also spent time at his grandfather’s business, Johnston Drug Store, years before it was sold to the Futrell family. The business still operates today as Futrell Pharmacy.

“It’s a kid’s Heaven to be able to go behind the counter,” Johnston said. “My grandfather taught me how to do that. It’s amazing that they’re not more popular.”

Johnston attended Pocahontas schools while in Kindergarten, he said.

Along the way, influences in his life helped him to develop an early interest in music. While growing up, his grandmother played the organ at the Methodist church in Pocahontas. His dad loved music and always had a record player playing music of the time. But Johnston didn’t learn to play music in the traditional sense. He tried piano lessons and hated them. Later in school, he played the trumpet in band, but it wasn’t until he talked his dad into buying what he described as a “horrible” acoustic guitar that Johnston began to grow and develop his passion for music.

“I finally got an electric guitar,” Johnston said. “I just kept learning different instruments and just had a lot better luck teaching myself to play. It’s probably a horrible liability, in my case, but I can play what I need to play.”

Johnston left Pocahontas and moved with his family to New York as he headed into 1st grade. He said his father wanted to move his family to an area where he could find more opportunities and a better education. So, they moved to an area near New York City, although that didn’t stop Johnston from regular trips back home.

“We went back every Summer,” Johnston said. “We went back until my grandfather retired. He and my grandmother moved to Florida. And then we would go see them in Florida. It was a strong family identity.”

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Getting Started

Johnston continued to develop his talent for music after moving to the northeast. Along the way, he took influence from many musicians, including The Beatles, James Taylor, Randy Newman, James Newton Howard, Hans Zimmer and certainly, John Williams. Although he was a self-taught prodigy, he studied music at Hampshire College, according to his LinkedIn page.

For a time, he scored animation and industrial films. Then, he worked with HBO and Showtime on various promos. But a chance meeting with the art director for the then-WWF ended up changing Johnston’s life and soon after, he went to work for Vince McMahon, who had just bought the company from his father.

“And there was the infamous story Vince told me of his dad coming to him and saying ‘if you put music into this product, you’re going to ruin it,'” Johnston said. “But Vince had the vision of this thing blowing up into a rock show.”

By bucking trends, McMahon transformed his father’s regional promotion into a global business worth billions. The transformation took time. One of the biggest catalysts for the company’s success was in the very first WrestleMania, held March 31, 1985 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

“The first piece of music I did was the theme to WrestleMania I,” Johnston said. “It was a big [show]. It’s got to have a show theme. It was so basic! Everything I did was in mono. It wasn’t even in stereo at the time.”

Like his talents, the influence of music truly began to grow in the wrestling industry. At the time, very few wrestlers had entrance music – but that was going to change soon. First, Johnston said they tried a few themes for people and it obviously worked. But for many years, only the babyfaces (good guys) would get theme music. The heels (villains) rarely if ever had their own theme song, at least in the early days of Johnston’s career. But even if you were considered a good guy, you had to reach a level of stardom to justify having a theme song.

“If the performer had a theme, it was a tacit approval that they’re a star,” Johnston said. 

It wasn’t very long until everyone involved in the product realized that music created an entirely new spectacle to the show. It was the new element that made Johnston start to enjoy the product.

Ironically enough, Johnston wasn’t a fan of pro wrestling when he took the job. He said he liked certain characters and understood the appeal – and was never snooty about it. However, as the entertainment aspect grew, especially with the stars having unique and adrenaline-filled entrances, he said he developed a taste for it.

“There’s this incredible energy, or was back in the day, less so these days, for the characters and the themes and the coming out and what the people hated and loved,” Johnston said. “And when I was at the events and the lights went off and the music stopped, the energy goes down. There aren’t many wrestlers who are like Rey Mysterio who make the wrestling itself interesting. For me, when they started wrestling, I’m out. But the excitement and anticipating who is coming out next, and the initial excitement of when the glass breaks or the Undertaker’s bell hits, or ‘do you smell what the Rock is cooking’ [plays]. The top guys are just spectacular entertainers. They hold an audience in the palm of their hand. That, I have great respect of giftedness and talent.”

(“The glass breaks” is referencing the entrance theme of the immensely popular ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin. As the clip above shows, the music made the crowd erupt with excitement)

If you ask any fan who has downloaded, or in the old days of the internet, pirated while desperately looking for a clear version without commentary, the most epic moments in wrestling probably wouldn’t have been as cool without Johnston’s influence.

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Working and Collaborating

Most of Johnston’s work was done alone, in a studio, all day, everyday, he said. He described it as a “24/7 365” job. The overwhelming amount of his time was spent scoring short films, vignettes, stories, and other projects outside of crafting entrance theme music.

Along the way, Johnston found incredible commercial success. He has ten Top 40 albums, two platinum albums, seven gold albums (in a row), and has gone silver, gold, and platinum outside of the US, as well.

Johnston said he always focused on what he wanted people to feel. He wouldn’t approach music from the perspective of what he wanted to hear but rather, what he wanted people to feel. Whether scoring some sort of promotional video or scoring a person, he said he stuck to that philosophy.

“But in scoring these characters, you’re scoring their story,” Johnston said. “So what’s their story? Does the music represent them looking outward? Like ‘Stone Cold,’ that’s Austin’s theme. ‘Here I come, get the hell out of the way. I’m just a driving force and I’ll never stop. You’d be a fool to cross me.’ But other things, like Taker’s theme, is more from our perspective, and is the world in which we see him. He IS Undertaker. This is just coincidentally the music we hear when we see him.”

Over his 32 year career in the WWE, Johnston collaborated with the most famous musicians in the world. Just to name a few, Johnston worked with Motörhead, Kid Rock, Mariah Carey, and so many others. He said he had very few negative experiences working with big names in music. His favorite experiences were working with Aretha Franklin, Billy Preston, and Little Richard, who he remembered fondly from recording ‘America the Beautiful’ for WrestleMania X (Little Richard performed live while he lip-synced a recording done with Johnston).

“He was incapable of not singing from the heart,” Johnston said. “So much so, he is the worst lip syncer in history. He would never sing anything the same twice because the spirit is different. That becomes a director’s nightmare. But I think that Richard just didn’t care. ‘I sing how I sing.’ And that’s what made him great.”

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All Good Things…

On November 30, 2017, Johnston’s incredible run with the WWE ended after 32 years. And unfortunately, it ended on a sour note. He described it ending “poorly because Vince fired me.” Apparently, he was a victim of internal politics, as Johnston said someone there had been trying to get him fired for a number of years and finally succeeded. Our reporter asked who it was, but Johnston didn’t want to name the person.

“But he knows,” Johnston said.

The last few years were not good. By the time it ended, Johnston said he was ready to go. But after spending so much of his life in the daily grind that is the WWE machine, it took him some time to get used to not being constantly under pressure to finish something. He described the experience similarly to someone who finally graduates from school but still has the instinct every Sunday night that homework was due the next morning.

Johnston said during his 32 years there, he never had enough free time to make music he would be inspired to create that was outside of work. That has all changed now and he seemed very content having his free-time back.

“Since leaving, for a period, I did some stuff but mainly I dropped out of the scene for a while,” Johnston said. “After 32 years I was ready to take a breather from writing music 24 hours a day.”

However, wrestling fans are always interested in a comeback story, and many have wondered if we may see Johnston back in the WWE. He said he wouldn’t go back as a full-time employee but he would be open to writing some music for them – although he thinks that will never happen. He said he had been contacted by another promotion, All Elite Wrestling, which airs on TNT and TBS. Although they spoke briefly, he said he hasn’t heard back from them, likely because they have an in-house person they’re already using.

A clear passion still exists within Johnston for crafting music to elevate stars, though. He spoke about how he felt clear, definable entrance music has been lacking in recent years. Many fans and even industry insiders have said the same on social media.

I barely recognize anyone’s music. 🤯

— Lance Storm (@LanceStorm) February 1, 2022

“It sounds horrible and arrogant and I don’t mean it to be, but the music is holding these businesses down,” Johnston said. “I think it’s the singular reason in either of those businesses that there aren’t stars like there used to be stars. It’s too generic. If you’re rising to the top, you’re just less generic. Used to be, you could be making dinner in the kitchen and you knew who was coming in. Now? It’s a crap shoot except for a couple of guys.”

However, some of the biggest names still use Jim Johnston music as their entrance theme. On Saturday night at WrestleMania 40, the Rock, who many consider the biggest name in modern entertainment, will enter to music composed by Johnston. No one will have any problems recognizing his music, either.

Johnston’s influence has clearly reached the highest level. With platinum albums, years of television and movie credits, and an influence that has led to entrance music being used in all sports and forms of entertainment, now, few could argue with Johnston’s career having been a monumental success.

But he’s not finished making music!

The next big project he’s working on is a relaunch of his website – JimJohnston.com. He describes it as a long-time coming and plans to relaunch with a bunch of new music. The music he plans to release is largely orchestral and not like his WWE work, at all.

“It’s just been great to work on so much music that I never had time to record,” Johnston said.

And Johnston also hopes, with the extra available time he now has, to get back home to Pocahontas someday soon.