John Haywood

As honest and country as a tumbleweed and a dirt road, John Haywood was born the son of a sheet metal contractor just south of Baltimore, Maryland. He earned his BA in English in 2013 and set out to become a novelist, traveling the country before settling in Nashville to begin work on a book about the Music City. He fell in love with songwriting, however, and returned in 2021 to establish himself in the music community, writing over 300 songs in his first two years and establishing a unique sound and voice of his own. In 2023, he was added to the Tin Pan South Songwriters Festival and made his television debut as lead singer of the band Gamblers in the Neon on the AXS show "Banded: The Musician Competition." He also released his first two singles, “Ghost Town in the Sky” and “Saint,” both reaching over 100,000 streams. In 2024, he returned to the Tin Pan festival and saw his first viral songwriting cut “Tamed by Tennessee” reach over two million streams.