Blackwell was born and raised in Columbia, South Carolina, and started playing drums at age 3. He learned from his father, John Blackwell Senior, a drummer himself, who played with Mary Wells, King Curtis, Joe Simon, Josip Juraj Jackson, The Drifters, The Spinners, and others
After high school, he attended Berklee College of Music and worked steadily in local Boston jazz clubs.
As a teenager, Blackwell played in both his high-school jazz and marching bands. He began playing in jazz clubs at age 13. At 17, he landed his first professional gig backing jazz singer and bandleader Billy Eckstine.
He left Berklee in 1995 to play with the funk band Cameo, a gig which lasted for three years.
Blackwell moved to Los Angeles in 1998 to look for more drumming work, and got a job playing with Patti LaBelle for three years. He appeared on her 1998 album Live! Blackwell met Prince while performing with LaBelle in Minneapolis.
Blackwell toured with Japanese singer Hikaru Utada, and then join Prince"s band, The New Power Generation, in 2000. Blackwell has also played with Justin Timberlake, Crystal Kay, P Diddy and Charlie Singleton.
He played at the 2008 Buddy Rich Memorial Concert.
Blackwell played with Maze, featuring Frankie Beverly. He released his debut album in December 2009, titled The John Blackwell Project. He has released two educational drumming DVDs: John Blackwell - Technique, Grooving and Showmanship, and John Blackwell.
He has endorsements from Dixon drums, Remo drumheads, and Zildjian cymbals and sticks.
Previously, he endorsed Yamaha Drums and was a longtime endorser of Tama Drums. Blackwell joined Xuwei"s band for his tour named "At This Moment"(Xuwei:Chinese musician) in 2013.
They performed in cities such as Beijing (May 17), Shanghai (July 13), Harbin (August 10), Hangzhou (August 24) and Shenzhen (September 7).
One Night Only, which won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Rhythm & Blues Vocal Performance. Blackwell played with Prince for 12 years and appeared on his 2003 Live at the Aladdin Las Vegas Digital Video Disc, and the 2003 instrumental album, N.E.W.S, which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best People’s Instrumental Album.
Most recently, he was a member of Doctorate"Angelo"s backing band, The Vanguard.
