John Reed was born in Port Aurthur, TX in February of 1980. After moving around the state for several years, he finally settled in Lubbock, TX in 1993. Music was always a very important part of his life. While playing the trumpet in his school’s band, he also began learning the guitar. Originally he concentrated on jazz and blues until a friend showed him Pantera’s “Vulgar Display of Power”, and from there hard rock became a priority. “I hadn’t really heard anything that blew me away like Dimebag’s playing……it changed my thoughts on how the guitar should be played.” In 1996 John began playing guitar for his high school’s jazz band. He received several accolades for his playing, including the International Jazz Educators Association’s Award for Outstanding Musicianship and he was accepted into the Texas Tech All-Star High School Jazz Band. During this time he began playing with the band Grounded, which later became MOYA. MOYA enjoyed considerable local success and landed them opening spots with bands such as: A Dozen Furies, Papa Roach, Drowning Pool, A Perfect Circle, Flickerstick, and Saliva. As MOYA or individually John has been featured in the Avalanche Journal’s around town section, on the front page of the University Daily (Texas Tech’s newspaper), and on the cover of Study Breaks magazine. Eventually the band split up and John began making money as an acoustic musician. John Reed caught the eye of Blood Red Summer at a MOYA reunion show at a benefit for a friend Daniel Green who was murdered earlier that year. “We all seemed to just click after the first practice; I think we all knew that we had something special.”
