Lefler was born in Houston, Texas, moved to Amarillo, Texas, for a year when he was 4, went to Elementary School in Edmond, Oklahoma, and then moved to Sugar Land, Texas, where he grew up and went to Junior High, High School. He went to the University of Texas at Austin, where graduated with a degree in Art – however most of his time in college was spent as a Chemistry major. He has 2 brothers, Bill and Kevin.
John started playing guitar in 1989, piano shortly thereafter. He had only one guitar lesson in his life and the first song he learned was Bon Jovi’s, “Wanted Dead Or Alive.” And that was the end of guitar lessons for him. His older brother Bill, helped him by teaching some chords as well. He still has his first guitar, a Peavey T-60 (that he keeps under his bed), which his dad got at a pawn shop for $50 at that time. He started writing songs when he about 18 years old, after seeing the John Lennon bio-pic, “Imagine”. One of the first songs he wrote is called “Liberace’s Christmas.” John had piano lessons while in High School for a few months. "My recital piece was Bruce Hornsby’s, “The Way It Is”.It was terrible. I’ve never had another lesson (or recital) of any kind since." A curious fact also happened in 1996. “I severed the tendon of my right pinky on a glass of milk. Thus, I play the piano with seven fingers and two thumbs.”
[edit] Career
DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL John joined Dashboard Confessional in 2002. He flew out to meet the guys in Florida and things clicked after Chris Carrabba saw that John was wearing the same Gap jacket as he was. After a week of quick study on the albums he made his first official appearance as a Dashboard Confessional member on the MTV Unplugged recording. He has been an important tool for Dashboard as the lead guitarist and keyboard player and has since recorded all the albums that followed.
