Before Mike Johnson went to Jim Maxwell's Globe Recording Studio in Nashville for his first professional recording session, he had several of his songs cut on acetate demos at Omega Recording Studio in Kensington, Maryland to see how he sounded on a record. He then sent his song "Ole House On the River" to Globe Studio to see how someone else sounded singing his songs, and Maxwell picked one of his demo artists, Ronnie Layne for the job. Now convinced that he should give recording a shot, Mike departed for Nashville on 14 April 1981 and two days later he recorded five of his songs.

After the session, Jim Maxwell mastered the recordings and then took Mike into the pressing room and cut the five songs onto three demo acetates so that he would have something to take home and listen to. He then cut the pressing plates so they could be sent off to manufacture his very first commercial release, a 45-rpm "King of the Fish" on Side 1 with "Please Don't Squeeze the Charmin" on Side 2.

When Globe Studio relocated to White House, Tennessee in 1983, just north of Nashville, Maxwell sent Mike over to his friend, Jim Stanton, owner of Rich-R-Tone Records, Champ Recording Studio, and Champ Records and Tapes. Stanton taught Mike how the Nashville clique worked and Mike recorded his songs at Jim's Studio until Jim's death in 1989.