There are unconventional paths to rock stardom, and then there is the one taken by Don Johnson, the man who made pastel shirts and five o’clock shadow fashionable as one of the leads of the iconic ’80s TV series “Miami Vice.” As a young man in the ’70s, he was an actor paying his dues in TV movies, but aspired to be a rock star; he hung out with the likes of Frank Zappa, the Doors, and the Allman Brothers Band, and even co-wrote a tune, “Can’t Take It With You,” for that outfit’s 1979 platter “Enlightened Rogues.”
In 1984, he landed the role of Sonny Crockett on “Miami Vice,” and suddenly found himself super-famous. Then, at a party, he bumped into CBS Records boss Walter Yetnikoff, and got into his ear about his musical aspirations. Yetnikoff listened, nodded, and signed Johnson, then 36 years old, to a record deal right then and there.
Johnson dropped his album, “Heartbeat,” in 1986 — and, stacked as it was with contributions from the likes of Tom Petty, Willie Nelson, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, it did pretty well, despite the stigma associated with actors who tried to rock. (It helped that Johnson was a pretty decent singer.) The title track went all the way to No. 5, but after his second LP, 1989’s “Let It Roll,” failed to make an impression, Johnson quit the music game while he was ahead.
