Johnny discovered his taste for fame aged 6 when he signed up for the Amersall School of Dance, Scawsby.

He went to The McAuley Catholic High School in Doncaster. His best friend was Richard Cooper who had an operation to remove a brain tumour aged 13 but sadly died after the tumour returned aged 20. Because of his busy schedule with Boom, Johnny couldn’t attend the funeral.

Johnny’s school friend Victor Heath remembers Johnny as being the ‘Billy Elliott’ of Doncaster, ignoring school bullies to be the only boy attending dance classes. ‘He chose a career that many men would look on as sissy, but he always loved dancing. He got ridiculed, but the insults only strengthened him.’

He trained for 3 years at the Performer’s College, Essex and gained his Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing qualifications in modern, advanced tap and ballet.

Johnny became a successful commercial dancer and performed with recording artists such as Atomic Kitten, FIVE, Robbie Williams and Sophie Ellis Bexter.

His appearances included UK and European arena tours, Top of the Pops, CD:UK, The Brit Awards, This Morning and GMTV.

Johnny danced for Steps on their 1999 sell out Step One UK arena tour. The cheeky guy with the spiky hair caught Lisa’s eye in the auditions. Lisa said: ‘I was there with the girls, Claire and Faye, and Johnny walked in. I immediately said, `He's got the job’.’ During the tour Johnny and Lisa fell in love, ‘At the end of the tour, we didn't want to say goodbye, so we never did,’ said Lisa. Johnny added ‘I thought Lisa was absolutely gorgeous when we first met. It was definitely love at first sight.’

Johnny proposed to Lisa on Valentine’s Day 2001 during a dinner and dance boat cruise on the River Thames, London.‘There was a room full of people having their dinners and Johnny called me over to sit on his knee,’ recalled Lisa. ‘He started saying lovely things, and I said: `If you're doing what I think you're doing, you should be on your knee. So he got down on one knee in front of the whole restaurant and pulled out this beautiful ring and asked me to marry him. I cried for about five minutes. I didn't even speak because I was so overwhelmed and the ring was so beautiful.’

In 2000 he was one of the back up dancers on An Audience with Diana Ross on ITV1.

In 1999 Johnny joined the 6 piece pop band Boom! His band mates were Rachel Carr, Shakti Edwards, Vicky Palmer, Shaun Angel and Nick Donaghy. Boom!s first single was planned for release in September 1999 but due to record company issues the group only released samplers and promos. The group kept working steadily towards the big time, playing intimate gigs and recording tracks written and produced by Cox, Lucas and Lloyd. In January 2001 Boom! Finally released their debut single Falling which charted at number 11 in the UK. This was also to be their last single and the group split up in late 2001.

In November 2011 he danced for hear’say at the Top of the Pops Awards. When Johnny later auditioned for the band this sparked off rumours that the auditions had been a fix.