Chiropractor-musician is a champion for the ukulele
By Matt Woods
Midland Daily News
MIDLAND, Mich. (AP) — Johnny Hunt of Midland is a man of many talents, but don’t mention that to him.
“I am just a picker,” Hunt said humbly during his interview with the Midland Daily News. Hunt is quick to downplay his many attributes, but the short form is that he is an accomplished musician of many instruments, as well as a chiropractor.
And he loves to tell people about the ukulele.
“I love it,” he said with a smile, placing his hand on the small, violin-like case that sat next to him on the table.
On March 13-14, Hunt will be part of WASSUP!, a free meeting of the folk minds and ukulele players at Midland Free Methodist in Midland. People may play if so inclined during the many workshops, jams and open mic sessions, or just sit back and enjoy the music.
Originally from the area, Hunt went to school to work in chemistry before discovering he wanted to follow a medical career.
“I grew up in Bay City,” he said. “And I went to Saginaw Valley for school.”
Hunt graduated from Saginaw Valley State University with a degree in chemistry. His original plan was to go into the Peace Corps when he graduated, but things were heating up in the area in which he was to serve.
“They were going to send me over to Malaysia, but then they started having government problems. This was in the late ‘70s,” he said.
Hunt changed his life plans, and decided to head West.
“I picked up a VW and went to California,” Hunt said, laughing. “I did the chemistry thing there for three or four years.”
He said he became involved with a church and met a girl. They were married, and started a family.
He became bored with his work in the chemistry field. And a visit to a chiropractor for an adjustment put a career idea in Hunt’s head.
“He really helped me a lot,” Hunt said of the chiropractor. “And I liked what I saw there. I had been wanting to get into health care, so I quit my job and went back to school.”
About the time he graduated, he and his wife had their first child. As he started his new career, he longed for the small town life he left behind. More children arrived in the family, and the couple decided it was time for a change.
“I was a young guy with a wife and three kids,” he said. “And I didn’t want to raise them in LA.” So they moved back to Midland in 1990, and Hunt went to work for a local chiropractor.
“He’s almost 90 and he’s still practicing,” Hunt said of his mentor, John Ostergren. Hunt now has his own practice with Healthway Chiropractic.
Hunt’s musical beginnings came the way many people find themselves making music — he was given an instrument as a gift when he was younger.
“I’ve played guitar since early on,” he said. “When I was 12 years old one Christmas there was a $25 guitar under the tree.”
Along with that guitar, Hunt learned to play many more instruments over the years.
“If it’s got strings and frets, I can play it,” Hunt said with a laugh. He said he can find his way around a mandolin, a stand-up bass, the guitar, the banjo, the fiddle and the dobro.
Hunt discovered the ukulele much later in his musical career. During a folk music festival in 2010, Hunt bumped into a friend who was tuning ukuleles in the back of his SUV. Intrigued, Hunt bought one of the instruments.
“I think I had $37 dollars in my wallet, so I bought one,” he said, laughing. He took the instrument home and began to play.
“I thought, ‘Hey, this is fun,’” he said, and the instrument found a home in his musical repertoire. These days, he considers the ukulele his favorite instrument.
“It’s the one I seem to take everywhere with me these days,” he said. He said he thinks the ukulele will stay popular due its affordability, uniqueness and size.
“It’s simple, easy to learn. And you don’t have to really be great at it to enjoy it,” he said. “I would say 95 percent of the people I play with are beginners.”
So when he is not straightening out backs, Hunt is bending some strings in one of a couple of different musical groups. And he has his string picking fingers in all other kinds of venues that help share and spread his love of music around the Great Lakes Bay Region.
One of Hunt’s musical endeavors is a group called Muzyka! He plays folk music with band members Lee Ann Whitman and Chuck Grant. His two partners also play with him in a Peter, Paul and Mary tribute band called Carry It On. And if that wasn’t enough, he is also a member of the Folk Music Society.
Another musical passion of Hunt’s is teaching people to play the ukulele. His teaching effort, called PEANUT (People of Every Age Need Ukulele Training), is a program that welcomes beginners to free lessons on the second Friday of each month from 7 to 8 p.m. at the Midland Free Methodist Church.
“We have ukes people can use if they come,” he said.
Hunt also belongs to a group called SUGAR (Saginaw Ukulele Gurus and Rookies).
“Our objectives are to make music and have fun,” he said. The group plays a monthly gig at a Saginaw area nursing home, as well as other performances all year long.
When pushed, Hunt is reluctant to say how well he has mastered the instrument.
“I am always learning something about it,” he said, laughing. “I would be patting myself on the back too hard if I called myself an expert. But I am good at it.”
But a health issue several years back could have put an end to his musical career.
“Ten years ago, I was refereeing a basketball game and I couldn’t blow the whistle,” he said. Hunt realized he was suffering from Bell’s Palsy, an affliction that attacks a cranial nerve. Sufferers often experience problems with the functioning of their facial muscles, and the eye on the affected side of the face often will no longer close.
Hunt said in most cases, the symptoms clear up on their own, but a small percentage continues to suffer with the facial paralysis. Unfortunately, Hunt is part of that group.
“I took antibiotics, but that didn’t resolve it,” he said. “I started having hearing problems, too.”
Hunt said a later visit to the doctor revealed a benign tumor on his facial nerve.
“It took a six hour surgery to remove the nerve and the tumor,” he said. Due to the invasiveness of the tumor, surgeons had to rebuild his ear drum and add a one gram platinum weight to his eyelid to aid in closing. A couple of cosmetic surgeries rounded out the experience.
“I feel blessed that I didn’t have cancer,” Hunt said. “I don’t let it stop me. I mean, what are you going to do? Just sit in the car and cry?”
These days, the 57-year old Hunt is happy to take care of his patients, teach his students, and above all else, make music.
“I am learning new things all the time,” Hunt said.
