{"id":2117,"date":"2024-12-24T15:29:08","date_gmt":"2024-12-24T21:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/?p=2117"},"modified":"2025-01-03T11:40:48","modified_gmt":"2025-01-03T17:40:48","slug":"john-mons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/john-mons\/","title":{"rendered":"John Mons"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Mons<\/p>\n

Inducted 2024<\/p>\n

John Mon’s musical career began in 1971 as bass player in his brother’s band, Gary Mons and The Trail Brothers. Over the next four years, they played weekends in bars, supper clubs, ballrooms and at special events all across Minnesota. He studied broadcasting, graduated in 1973 from Brown Institute in Minneapolis, and married his wife Cindy. In 1974, he started working as a DJ at KNUJ radio in New Ulm through 1976. In 1975, he started his own band The Midnite Special, and they experienced immediate success. The group played bars, supper clubs, ballrooms, fairs, and country music festivals- any place in the five-state area that wanted to hear, dance, and party to their country-rock style of music. The Midnite Special took top honors at several band contests across the state, and their popularity soared. In addition to John being the frontman, he also did all booking and promoting for the band. From 1976 thru 1983, while working part-time at KNUJ & at KDUZ radio in Hutchinson, Minnesota, The Midnite Special were playing 275-300 gigs per year, appearing with major acts of the day: Ray Price, Janie Fricke, Sonny James, Jeannie C. Riley, and The Statler Brothers, just to name a few. The band recorded two albums and singles during those busy years. John Volinkaty, who wrote the massive hit song “Satin Sheets”, wrote the liner notes for their first album, and summed it up best: “lf you haven’t seen THE MIDNITE SPECIAL in person, I urge you to do so. In the songs they sing and the way they entertain, the people who come to see them, they are indeed SPECIAL”. ln 1983, John decided to get off the road to spend more time with his family, and got back into radio full-time at KDUZ. Mons reunited with a couple of former Midnite Special members, his guitar-playing brother Gary, and drummer John “A-Frame” Beck. They formed a band called Spearfish Canyon, and their country-rock style once again proved to be popular, keeeping them busy most weekends for the next six years. From 1988-1989, Spearfish Canyon performed every Friday & Saturday night as the house band at The Cedar Edge Ballroom and Supper Club in Cedar Mills, Minnesota. From 1986-1991, John was a Bandshell Emcee at The Minnesota State Fair. In 1989, John got offstage and stepped behind the big stage when he accepted a position at The Minnesota State Fair as the Grandstand Manager and “Handler of The Stars”, personally working with all the national acts that appeared each summer at The Great Minnesota Get-Together<\/em>— a position he held for 14 years until he retired in 2005. He would spend the entire day working out details with each artist performing that night. There were many entertainers from every style of music that helped create memories- too many to individually name here- but one that stands out is former Beatle, Ringo Starr. John’s professional and easy-going mannerism also led to many friendships with the stars over the years, and one led to the opportunity to work for Dolly Parton at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee during the Summer of 1993 as Stage Manager for her Sunset Music Festival. His responsibility was working with the up-and-coming artists of that time, including Shania Twain, Martina McBride, Allison Krause, and The Dixie Chicks. In 1994, John was also one of the originators and booked all the bands for the first-ever Winstock Country Music Festival, held in Winsted, Minnesota. A huge outdoor country music festival that is still very popular to this day- this event draws close to 20,000 fans each Summer. After retiring from The Minnesota State Fair in 2005, John was back onstage again when he joined The Prairie Rose Band. His intent was to help them out “for a few months”- and he ended up staying with them for 10 years. Prairie Rose released an album on CD in 2006 that sold out in a very short time. John once again became the front man & did all the booking for the band. The group’s popularity found them working a busy schedule in clubs, casinos, festivals, fairs, and street dances. Prairie Rose opened for national recording artists Don Williams, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Williams & Ree, and John Conlee. One “unique” job The Prairie Rose Band really enjoyed was playing between horse races each Summer at Canterbury Park track in Shakopee, Minnesota. On occasion, they were also invited to play at area churches & outdoor services with a set of country gospel songs & religious favorites. The male members of The Prairie Rose Band- without their female singer- performed as a classic country trio called Old Gold. Why that name? John said “The name was picked for obvious reasons. We’re old, and we play solid gold classics!” Mons stepped onstage for the final time with Old Gold in the Summer of 2016. In radio during 2000-2022, John worked at KDUZ, KARP radio in Hutchinson, and KGLB radio in Glencoe, Minnesota. He has Emceed well over a thousand events, benefits, charities, and live radio broadcasts during his 48-year career. John has hosted trips via radio stations to Nashville, Branson, Missouri, and Las Vegas, Nevada, as well has several local trips throughout Minnesota. And- from now on- he\u2019s looking forward to going to as many of his nine grandchildren\u2019s events as possible.<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Mons Inducted 2024 John Mon’s musical career began in 1971 as bass player in his brother’s band, Gary Mons and The Trail Brothers. Over the next four years, they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,6],"tags":[58,235,65,462,444,463,57,45,464],"class_list":["post-2117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-51","category-inductee","tag-58","tag-hutchinson","tag-inductee","tag-john-mons","tag-kduz","tag-midnite-special","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-music-hall-of-fame","tag-prairie-rose"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mnmusichalloffame.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}