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Johnson, also known as the Bucket Man, recently died.
As the Bucket Man Johnson was well-known in the area for his percussive performances on a white, plastic contractor’s bucket he’d carry around. Some people knew Johnson as “Motown Man” or “Motown Benne.”
Johnson was a talented musician playing jazz, classic rock and Motown with a bucket and kazoo. He’d often dress the part of a rockstar wearing a shimmery scarf like a cape and wearing brightly-colored Mardi Gras beads.
He’d play on the streets, but people would also book him for gigs.
“You may have seen him around Amherst singing with his bucket entertaining people, he said he would od it to lif people’s spirit,” Johnson’s obituary said. “A legend is gone.”
Johnson was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, spent his teens in Brooklyn and moved to Massachusetts with his wife Margarita Feliciano in 1983.
Johnson started the “Pay to Be Poor” food bank program and advocated for public transportation access in Florence Heights. He also had two patents.
Johnson is predeceased by his wife, who died a few months earlier on Sept. 29, 2020. He is survived by his three children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, as well as his brothers and sisters, nieces, nephews, and friends.
Funeral services are being handled by Ahearn Funeral Home in Northampton.
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