Peter C. Johnson has been played on NTS shows including Freedom To Spend, with Pale Blue Eyes first played on 21 October 2020.

Peter C. Johnson (aka PCJ) came onto the Boston music scene in the late '60's. Together with his friend John Payne (known for his work with Van Morrison, for whom he played flute on Astral Weeks) he formed a band called The Manic Depressives, later known as Peter Johnson and the Manic Depressives. In 1973 they contributed a track to the compilation album Live At Jack's, called "Dyin' Flu". The band performed with several artists, such as Van Morrison, Howlin' Wolf, Cat Stevens, J. Geils Band, Velvet Underground, Townes Van Zandt, and a relatively unknown Bruce Springsteen, who always had to borrow their mikes. They also became the backing band of Bonnie Raitt. The band broke up after a fistfight on a wedding gig.

PCJ started a solo carreer in 1978, performing with six mannequins and a lot of electronic equipment. He was signed to A&M, where the first album Peter C. Johnson was released with the help of John Payne, Bonnie Raitt, Nils Lofgren, and others. It was a critical success, but did not sell as well as it should. After the release, he went into the studio with John Cale, who was a producer for A&M in those days. They had a great time recording, but did not perform the trick the A&M-management wanted them to, so he was fired. In 1980 he was signed by CBS, but the second album, also called Peter C. Johnson (or referred to as Peter C. Johnson 2) was only released in the Netherlands, where the first album had sold remarkably well. Due to bad marketing, the album got no attention whatsoever. After that he was signed to Lamborghini Records and recorded an album in England with the Sinceros, Carlene Carter's band. Members of the band would later show up with Nick Lowe, Squeeze and The Who's touring band. He hated the result and the album was never released. Back in the US, he went into rehab, and was not heard of for a long time. In 2001, he reemerged with bloodshot on WindJam Records, followed by Soul Sherpa in 2004 on the Hi-n-Dry label. The European release of this album (CoraZong Records) contains two extra tracks. Early 2007 his new album Yaka Yaka was released through Hi-n-Dry Records. In 2008 the collection 1978-1981 (A Benefit For The Mark Sandman Music Project) was released as a physical CD only. It mainly contains tracks from the first two albums, two tracks from the Lamborghini sessions, as well as a rare bonus track of Mark Sandman himself pitching Pizza Hut (produced by Peter in 1987).