Diesel

Raised on the sound of his father's saxophone, Mark Lizotte turned to electric guitar and became one of Australia's most durable rock figures under the name Diesel. Born in Fall River, Massachusetts, in 1966, he emigrated with his family in 1971, living in Albury and later Perth. He has recorded as Diesel, as Johnny Diesel and under his own name, and he led Johnny Diesel & the Injectors, a band whose mixture of R&B, blues and Southern rock won a local following in Perth.

After a spell with the Perth pub rockers Innocent Bystanders, who released "Lebanon" in 1984, he formed the Injectors in 1986 and moved them to Sydney the following year. Jane Barnes's recommendation led to work on Jimmy Barnes's Freight Train Heart, and Diesel stayed on as lead guitarist for the tour while the Injectors opened. He married her sister Jep in 1989. Chrysalis signed the band, and his albums Hepfidelity (1992) and The Lobbyist (1993) both reached No. 1 on the ARIA chart. He has won six ARIA Awards, three of them for Best Male Artist in 1993, 1994 and 1995, and has produced albums for Richard Clapton and for Vika and Linda Bull.