Diesel (musician)

Mark Denis Lizotte (born 31 May 1966) is an American born Australian singer songwriter and musician, who has released material under the name Diesel, Johnny Diesel, as leader of band Johnny Diesel & the Injectors, and as a solo performer, as well as under his birth name. Two of his albums reached No. 1 on the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Albums Charts, Hepfidelity in 1992 and The Lobbyist in 1993. Since 1987, Lizotte, has played on several albums by his brother in law, Australian rock singer, Jimmy Barnes. Although better known as a singer songwriter and guitarist, Lizotte is also competent on bass guitar, drums, percussion and keyboards; and has also produced an album by Richard Clapton and one by Vika and Linda Bull. He has won six ARIA Music Awards with three for 'Best Male Artist' in 1993, 1994 and 1995.

Diesel was born on 31 May 1966 in Fall River, Massachusetts, United States, and emigrated to Australia with his family, in November 1971. During his school days at Scarborough Senior High School, he joined a newly formed band by Duncan Andrews named "Dark Spot". The band was Diesel's first. Whilst the band was without a vocalist for some time, Andrews was on bass, with Bill Advic on electric rhythm guitar and Diesel on lead guitar. Each band member tried out for the vocalist spot but it was thought that no one could sing well enough. In 1981 Dark Spot entered the battle of the band competition in Fremantle with an original song penned by Duncan Andrews with Andrews on vocals and bass. The band took home first place, largely due to the combination of Andrews' vocals and Diesel's guitar work. In his mid teens, Diesel (as Mark Lizotte) performed with The Kind and Close Action. The Kind had Diesel with Denise DeMarchi, Suze DeMarchi, Dean Denton, Gary Dunn, John 'Yak' Sherrit and Boyd Wilson. and they released a single, "Lebanon" in 1984 with the line up of Diesel, John "Tatt" Dalzell on bass guitar, Brett Keyser on vocals, Cliff Kinneen on keyboards and Sherrit on drums. The band played a mixture of R&B, blues and Southern rock;

Johnny Diesel & the Injectors moved to Sydney in September after taking up management by Brent Eccles, drummer for The Angels. They came to the attention of Jane Barnes, wife of hard rocker, Jimmy Barnes (ex Cold Chisel), and through her recommendation, Diesel was hired to work on Barnes' third solo album, Freight Train Heart. Diesel's band signed with Chrysalis Records and their eponymous debut album, Johnny Diesel & the Injectors, was recorded in Memphis, Tennessee with producer Terry Manning from August 1988 and released in March 1989. His next release, "Tip of My Tongue", appeared in February 1992, reaching No. 4 and becoming his highest charting single. it also hit No. 1 on the Australian charts,

Early in 1996, Diesel recorded the album Short Cool Ones with Melbourne blues musician Chris Wilson as Wilson Diesel, released in February. The project also featured drummer Angus Diggs, bass player Dean Addison and Bob Woolf on keyboards. On 10 October 2004, Andrew Denton interviewed Barnes on the ABC TV program Enough Rope, Diesel then performed with Barnes and his children, Eliza Jane, Jackie and Elly May. Around the same time, Diesel released Singled Out. An entirely acoustic overview of his career, it earned an ARIA nomination. Over the same period, he also worked with Barnes on his Double Happiness album, including a duet on the track "Got You as a Friend" and providing musical backing including guitar, drums, bass guitar, percussion and keyboards on various tracks. In 2006, Diesel released Coathanger Antennae, an album recorded in two months. Of it, he said "We approached it like the Stones or The Beatles used to do where we'd just put down a few takes live and then picked the ones that we all felt good about", emphasising the focus on live recording rather than studio polishing. Diesel made guest appearances on the Australian leg of Dweezil Zappa's 2009 Zappa Plays Zappa Tour, playing guitar and vocals after Ray White's departure from Zappa's group. The year 2008 saw the release of the studio album "Days Like These". The album peaked at number 17 in Australia. 3 July 2009 saw the release of Project Blues: Saturday Suffering Fools, a blues album featuring a horn section made up of ex Injector Bernie Bremond and family members Hank (Father) and brothers Michael and Brian Lizotte. Brian currently owns a series of theatre bars (under the name "Lizotte's"), namely in the Newcastle suburb of Hamilton, at which Diesel has played.

4 July 2011 saw the release of "Under the Influence" – a collection of Diesel's favourite and influential guitar music featuring tracks by Jimi Hendrix, Link Wray, Albert King, Neil Young and The Sonics. "I was doing these shows called 'Under the Influence' just for fun" says Diesel. "One night it would be Jimi Hendrix or Al Green and then another night I'd do the three Kings (Albert, Freddie and B. B)" he adds. "I thought it would be good to make a record like that." A "hand picked" retrospective album spanning 20 years of recordings titled You Get There from Here was released on 1 June 2012. Diesel made his scoring debut in 2012 with six part series Bikies Wars: Brothers in Arms, contributing the theme track "Highway Mind" and over 140 original score pieces. The first episode aired on Tuesday 15 May 2012. Diesel's real name Mark Lizotte is listed in the credits. Diesel's eleventh album Let It Fly was released on 9 August 2013. "It's all of my life's work so far brought to fruition, in many ways. It's pretty encompassing," he said. "There's a lot of stuff I've never tried before either – like, there are folk elements that are quite different for me I guess when you start using mandolin and fiddle, it’s gonna happen!" In 2016, Diesel commenced the "Pieces of Americana" tour and released Americana on July 1, which debuted at number 15 on the ARIA chart. In 2018, Diesel celebrated 30 years in the industry with the release of a 30 track compilation album, 30: The Greatest Hits as well as national tour titled Give Me Saturday Night. In mid 2019 Diesel announced the release of a Sunset Suburbia trilogy. It consisted of two EPs, leading to a studio album in 2020. Two singles lifted from the two EPs were released in 2019, and the album was released in August 2020.

In May 2021, Diesel released "Six Steel Strings", the lead single from his album, Alone with Blues, released on 16 July 2021. The album peaked at number 20 on the ARIA chart. During 2022 he presented a 12 part TV documentary series Days Like These with Diesel, with each episode describing a pivotal concert by Australian artists: Jet, Baby Animals, Hunters & Collectors, the Angels, Diesel, Rose Tattoo, Jimmy Barnes, Eurogliders, Archie Roach, Icehouse, Troy Cassar Daley and Cold Chisel.

The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music, which began in 1987. YearCategoryNominated workResultRef. (Reference)1989Breakthrough Artist – Single"Don't Need Love"Best New Talent1990Breakthrough Artist – AlbumJohnny Diesel and the Injectors Highest Selling AlbumBest Group1993Album of the YearHepfidelityBest Cover ArtBest Male ArtistHighest Selling Album Single of the Year "Tip of my Tongue"Song of the Year 1994Best Male ArtistThe LobbyistAlbum of the YearSingle of the Year"Never Miss Your Water"Song of the YearProducer of the Year1995Best Male ArtistSolid State Rhyme2003Best Independent ReleaseHear2004Best Adult Contemporary AlbumSingled Out