Photos courtesy John Hopkins


Meet John Hopkins! John plays bass guitar and is a vocalist with the Zac Brown Band!
John grew up in Gainesville and graduated from Gainesville High School. He  is married and has three daughters, and is the oldest of four brothers (David, Michael and Mark).
John and the Zac Brown Band will kickoff their Down the Rabbit Hole 2018 Tour this summer and they are set to play Sun Trust Park on June 30.
“We are at home with a few private and a few personal gigs and a few one offs until June and in June we’ll have our tour rehearsal and then we’ll get on the road from June through October,” he said.
While growing up in Gainesville, John was rooted in the local community and sang with Grace Episcopal and First Baptist Church choirs, he also was deeply involved in the theatre program at Gainesville High School with Pam Ware before studying theatre at Florida State University.
“She (Pam) is an inspiration to hundreds and thousands of students over the years; and definitely to me,” John said.
We want to thank John for recently spending time with us and telling us more about his life and love of Hall County.
Question: What was it like singing the National Anthem at the College Football National Championship earlier this month?
Answer: “It was actually cooler to see the Bulldogs in the championship than it was to sing the anthem. It was one of those things, I’m a Florida State graduate but I went to Georgia for two years and I grew up a Bulldog but there is something innate in me that I can’t shake about Georgia football. We had a chance to meet the President and then right after that we met Herschel Walker and I’m pretty sure I was more excited to meet Hershel Walker…he’s such a gracious dude and looks like he could go play right now. When I was 10 years old in a Boy Scout uniform I was ushering people at Georgia and I saw him play in ’81 and ’82.”
Q: What was it like being the oldest of four boys growing up?
A: “Well, dad always instilled in me that I needed to be the leader and that all my brothers were watching me and I think that’s true. I think younger siblings always watch the oldest and there might have been a certain degree of pressure on me to perform. The other ones may or may not have had as much pressure, but every one of my brothers is very capable and very talented and whenever they put their mind to something can achieve anything they want. I’ve been very proud of all of them and excited to lead the way.”
Q: What inspired you and lead you to your career in music?
A: “Sometimes you feel like you just don’t have a choice, I’ve always been a singer and I’ve always been a ham or some sort of performer. I was in church choir from Grace Episcopal to First Baptist to Pam Ware’s theatre program and I’ve always been involved in something musical and when I went to Florida State and studied theatre it was a really comfortable fit and I started playing music immediately and when I graduated I just kept playing music; from the time I was 3 years old I can’t think of a time that I wasn’t singing something.”
Q: Who is one of the most interesting people that you have met in Hall County?
A: “One of the most interesting people in Hall County is Pam Ware. She has a national and if not world wide recognition for providing excellence in high school theatre. She has generated through her program dozens and dozens of industry professionals that still thrive in entertainment today. To come from a sleepy town like Gainesville, that’s amazing. She started as an English teacher and had a knack for it and was a sponge and absorbed everything around her and so much about theatre and pushed that on to her students. I think the thing about her program that is the most valuable is that it teaches the students to work as a team and that really translates into any profession that you go into. She is an inspiration to hundreds and thousands of students over the years and definitely to me.”
Q: What three bands (dead or alive) would you want to see in concert?
A: “Well, I just got to see U2 twice this year and I’m going to go see them again, they are one of my absolute favorites. If I could see Journey during the Escape era that would be a band that I would love to see and I would love to see Queen, but I may be disappointed with live versus the recordings…I think Journey, Led Zeppelin and Hank Williams.”
Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would you go?
A: “I’ve never been to the Far East but I don’t know if that’s where I would want to go. If you said, where would you go for a week, I would say Italy. I’ve been there several times and I love it. There are so many fantastic places around the world that I would love to explore. I would say Tuscany for the red wine and pasta.”
Q: What is one of your favorite things about Hall County?
A: “Lake Lanier. I used to work at Belk in the late 80s as a stock boy. I would get off work in the summer time when I was 16 and I would take my dad’s truck and hook up our boat, (he had a ski boat) and we would drop it off at Holly Park.  I think I went skiing three times a week, seems like as much as I possibly could. I really used that lake when I was a kid and it is one of the greatest things about that area.”
Q: What is your favorite restaurant in Hall County?
A: “Hop’s Kitchen. As a kid we would get real excited about going to Poor Richard’s.  If you were going fancy back in the day you would take your homecoming date to Rudolph’s.”
Q: Where do you see yourself in five or 10 years?
A: “The band is doing really amazing things right now. We are playing major league baseball parks all summer, more than we’ve ever played before and I think that is a testament to our future and I hope that in five or 10 years, we are doing more of that. I just finished my own studio (Brighter Shade Studio in Atlanta) and it is more convenient to me and I hope to be putting out my own recordings, some this year and I just finished my Christmas album last year…this next one will be with my own band, the John Driskell Hopkins Band. Hopefully, we will be able to do a record a year from that studio and stay busy and viable in terms of my artistry outside of the Zac Brown Band.”
Q: What is something on your bucket list?
A: “I’ve always wanted a pool…that’s not really for a bucket list. I think one of my goals now as I continue to push my own agenda outside of my full time amazing experience that I have with Zac Brown Band, I’d really like to achieve some radio, some national if not international radio, and do some film stuff musically or as a voice and acting talent. If I were to say bucket list, I would say I want to be the voice of a Disney villain.”
Q: What is one of your favorite memories of playing with the Zac Brown Band?
A: “There are just so many to pinpoint just one…when I think about my favorite memories they are…playing Fenway Park and opening for Kenny Chesney at Cowboy Stadium, and standing at the 50-yard line, and thinking ‘oh my gosh, I’m playing in front of 60,000 people.'”
Q: When you were singing in high school and at church, who was one of your favorite bass singers?
A: “Well, Brad (Abernathy) always had a fine voice,” John chuckled. “We learned a lot of Jimmy Cutrell. Brad and John Canupp and Chris Riley and I really spent a lot of time at First Baptist back in the day and…Jimmy was instrumental in teaching us all about four part harmony and projection and trying to get tone. All the things that I’ve experienced and grew up with in Hall County and in Gainesville really shaped me as a musician and I’m very blessed to have been a part of all that.”
The Faces of Hall County is a project to showcase the amazing people that live in our community. If you would like to nominate an interesting person to be featured please email babernathy@gonorton.com.