John Custer (born 1962) is an American record producer and musician. He has produced Grammy-nominated recordings, Gold records, #1 songs on the Billboard charts and Hall Of Fame inducted albums. In 2014, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Carolina Music Awards. He has been called the "Indestructible Godfather of the NC Music Industry". Sony/Columbia Record's Josh Sarubin, who signed Cry of Love and DAG said, "John is the most talented guy I know. He has a huge attention to detail and an unbelievable ear for music. I don't think there's any kind of music he doesn't understand. He's very good at figuring out what a band does well and bringing it out to its highest fulfillment." Early life Custer is from Cary, North Carolina, the son of Janine and Donald Custer—who worked for the United States Secret Service and CIA respectively—and moved to Cary to work for the military-industrial complex part of IBM in the Research Triangle Park. Custer describes his parents as "more than cosmopolitan folk", exposing him to a wide range of musical styles. He had an early passion for music and would play his father's "forbidden guitar" every chance he could." His early musical influences include Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass, Marvin Gaye, Ricki Lee Jones, Queen, Sex Pistols, and The Clash. The North Carolina band Nantucket was also an inspiration to Custer. In 2017, he told writer David Manconi, "I remember being at a party, seeing their records, and my jaw dropping. They were real albums on a real record label with real artwork and all that—and from here! It made you think that things were possible…." Custer graduated from Cary High School in 1981. After high school, he joined a band that played the Southeastern Circuit, (Maryland down to Florida), playing covers so they could slide–in original material. He also met his first music mentor, drummer Kenny Soule from the bands PKM and Nantucket. Around the age of 22 years, Custer moved to New York City and worked as a session guitarist at the Vision Sound Studios, providing guitar tracks for national television commercials such as Coca–Cola, Ford, Jovan, Mazda, Revlon, and VH1. Custer says commercial work was "nothing but pressure" because "you'd get one shot". Back from New York In 1986, Custer played guitar in the Raleigh area band Four Hard Men with bassist Steev Adams (Pressure Boys, The Hanks), Tony