Linas Johansonas aka Johan, Key Figure in Cleveland’s Music & Lithuanian Communities, Dies

Linas Johansonas was known by that name in Cleveland’s Lithuanian community in which he was a prominent figure. But in the music community he was more familiarly known as just “Johan.” After recovering from a heart attack last year, he died of a massive heart attack on Wednesday May 23. He was only 58.

Johan’s twin passions for music and Lithuania were lifelong. He recalled meeting legendary Plain Dealer music writer Jane Scott while manning a Lithuanian cub scout booth at a St. Casimir’s Day fair in the early ’70s when Grace Kudukis, a doyenne of the Cleveland Lithuanian community and a friend of Scott’s brought her to his booth and said, “Jane, I’d like to introduce you to our Lithuanian community expert on rock & roll.”

The two quickly bonded. Johan got his feet wet in radio interning with Mudd on M105 as a character called Noodle. Attending Cleveland State in the late ’70s, he did a show called Wave Length on CSU radio station WCSB — and Scott did a story on him.

Johan was an expert at working such connections to his advantage. He worked with marketing director Christy Smutak for the Urban Cowboy in Akron and Painesville. Soon he worked his way into the Agora, assisting crew member Kathy Grunn when she broke her leg. “I was her legs!” he recalled. “My first show was the Plasmatics.” (That 1981 sold-out show was famous because lead singer Wendy O. Williams was arrested for allegedly exposing her breast).

When the Agora moved to its current location at 50^th and Euclid in the late ’80s, he landed a gig as the club’s promotion and marketing director. He was well suited for the job. Outgoing and with an unquenchable taste for being “in the know,” he was an enthusiastic supporter of the local music scene. He developed relationships with bands he loved, such as Ghosts in Daylight and Fifth Wheel, and promoted them relentlessly.

He was back on radio in the mid 90s when 107.9 became WENZ the End, an alternative rock station. There he co-hosted (with Pat Johnson) Inner Sanctum, the Sunday evening local music show where he enthusiastically pushed all his favorite local artists.

In the early 2000s, his life took a detour when he married and ran a Lithuanian-American grocery with his wife in the resort town of Union Pier, Michigan, a summer getaway for Chicago powerbrokers such as Chicago mayor and former Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. Johan reported gleefully how he had given Emanuel advice about politics.

After his divorce and his move back to Cleveland in 2014, Johan became deeply entrenched in the Lithuanian cultural scene. He operated LTnews, an online outlet for news about Lithuania and Lithuanians there and abroad, and did promotion and other assorted jobs for the Lithuanian Community Center and Cleveland Lithuanian Archive Center in Collinwood. But he always kept a toe in the music scene, advocating for music he loved. His energy and passion will be much missed in both communities.

 

Post categories:

• Music: Rock and Roll
• Anastasia Pantsios
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