From a very early age Daniel began to declare, to anyone that would listen, that he was going to be a famous artist. (This is notable because, in that time and place, art was not considered a viable career. But Daniel had decided and he was undeterred by real world concerns.) “I started drawing when I was 4. Something told me I was going to be famous.”[1] “Very young, the idea of being an artist or being famous, even way before [I knew about] The Beatles… I knew that um, for some reason, I knew that I was an artist. I knew that I was different from other people.”[2]
Daniel began piano lessons, from his siblings, at an early age. In earlier years Sally had taken piano lessons and passed down what she’d learned to Margy. Margy taught Cindy and Dick, and Cindy and Dick taught Daniel. As soon as he learned to play any piano at all, he began writing simple songs. First, he wrote the instrumental “Dead Dog’s Eyeball Theme,” so named years later in high school, and then the brief lyric/melody, “Flash lightning past my window/Tune of Frankenstein/I don’t care/You don’t scare me,” a lyric that was featured in the “Kool Aid” medley he often played at concerts decades later, in the 2000s.[3]
[1] 1991 Harris Video Interviews, 1991
[2] 13:28, CS0324_0 Devil Talk and Gospel with Steve April 5 88, Daniel’s first night in NYC, April 5, 1988. [This is an essential tape, by the way. It includes the origin about the deal with the devil delusion, the origin of early dreams of fame, and what Daniel himself describes a delusion of grandeur.]
[3] CS0250A Ron Harris Interviews Daniel Johnston, 1988