Phil Johnstone

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Phil Johnstone (1 September 1957 – 31 May 2021)^[1] was an English songwriter, keyboardist, guitarist,^[2] and record producer, best known for his work with singer Robert Plant. His songwriting credits include Plant's number-one Mainstream Rock hits "Heaven Knows", "Tall Cool One" and "Hurting Kind (I've Got My Eyes on You)".^[3]

Johnstone first worked with Plant on the 1988 album Now and Zen,^[4] which Johnstone co-produced. Johnstone co-wrote most of the songs on the album; he also wrote songs for Plant's follow-up albums Manic Nirvana (1990) and Fate of Nations (1993).

Following his work with Plant, Johnstone wrote songs for singer Alannah Myles' 1995 album A-lan-nah.^[3] Recorded and produced Freeborn John by Rev Hammer 1996 on Cooking Vinyl. Johnstone also co-wrote the whole of The Levellers' 2000 album Hello Pig. Johnstone also headed the popular all-star musical festival act, "The Fabulous Good Time Party Boys", which featured members of the Levellers, Irish singer/songwriter Dan Donnelly, American musician Roy Harter, and two of his children, Alex Johnstone and Emily Johnstone.^[5]

Johnstone died on 31 May 2021 at the age of 63, after a few years of bad health.^[6] His funeral service was held on 2 July at St James' Parish Church in Exeter.^[7]