John Spillane (born 1961) is a singer-songwriter from Cork, Ireland. He graduated from University College Cork with a degree in Irish and in English. 　　Spillane grew up in the Cork suburb of Wilton, in a family of five boys. He was educated in Coláiste an Spioraid Naoimh, Bishopstown. Raised by his mother she influenced his musical nature who taught him a variety of Cork songs including "The Banks of My Own Lovely Lee" and "The Lonely Woods of Upton". A shy child who shunned the spotlight, he got his first guitar at the age of fifteen and joined his first band in school. When he first began his main influences derived from artists like the Beatles, Neil Young and Bob Dylan. His beginnings were more rock than anything else until he had a change of heart.