John Hopkins
Video
Oral History Information
Interview Date
Job Title
President
Company Name
Sweetwater Sound
John Hopkins became best friends with Chuck Surack, the founder of Sweetwater Sound, thanks to one phone call. Running his own heating and air condition company by day and helping his classical trained pianist wife by night, John found himself answering an ad in a magazine to purchase a keyboard upgrade. The year was 1988 and when John called Sweetwater for the purchase, the founder and owner, Chuck Surack, answered. They became fast friends and in fact Chuck hired John in 1992 and the two worked together until Chuck stepped up to chairman. At that time John took over as president of Sweetwater and credits his team for their many innovations within the music industry as well as their success.