Jonathan Earl Woods, known as Jon Woods (born August 23, 1977, in Charlotte, North Carolina), is a Republican and a former member of both houses of the Arkansas General Assembly, a record producer, as well as a musician. He is now in federal prison for political corruption, wire and mail fraud, and money laundering.
Background
In 1979, Woods and his family relocated from North Carolina to Blytheville in Mississippi County in eastern Arkansas. He attended Gosnell public schools through the ninth grade, where he played football, basketball, and ran track. He began his involvement in local and state government through the mentorship of Arkansas State Representative Ann Bush, a fellow Republican. Ann and her husband, Allen, part owners of Bush's Baked Beans, recruited Woods to join the Boy Scouts of America, in which he earned the rank of Eagle Scout.
Having grown up in the Arkansas Delta, Jon was heavily influenced by the music scene in nearby Memphis, Tennessee.
In 1993, at the end of Jon's freshman year of high school, his father was offered a job with Allen Canning located in Siloam Springs in Benton County, Arkansas. After relocating to Siloam Springs, Woods attended the John Brown University basketball camp during the summer before his sophomore year at which he met John W. Brown, who became a Special Operative Pararescueman and was killed in action the 2011 Chinook shootdown in Afghanistan.
During Woods' junior year at Siloam Springs High School, he attended Arkansas Boys State. While in high school, Jon played football and basketball, but chose soccer rather than track. Several of the high school soccer team players were musicians, who inspired Woods to pick up the guitar more seriously. He also took private vocal lessons at John Brown University. During this time, fellow basketball and soccer player, musician, and close friend Tim Berry died in a car accident at the age of sixteen. Years later, Tim would be the inspiration for the band name, A Good Fight, named for the verse in II Timothy 4:7. During his high school and college years, Woods lifeguarded at the Siloam Springs municipal pool and Dawn Hill Country Club, where he also taught private swimming lessons. Upon graduation in 1996, Woods attended Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville. He obtained two degrees, an Associate of Arts and an Associate of Science in Business.
He continued his education at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, and served in the Associated Student Government Senate. He was elected chairman of the College Republicans and stayed involved with the Republican committees of Benton and Washington counties. He was a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, Alpha Zeta chapter and was a member of the intramural soccer team for the fraternity. While at the University, Jon completed an internship at the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center, at which he helped small businesses develop through market research and business development. During this time, his non-college activities included taking private drum, guitar and bass lessons. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration with a focus on Marketing Management from the Sam Walton College of Business at UA-Fayetteville in 2002.
After graduation, Woods took a job in commercial banking in Benton and Washington counties. He co-founded the pop rock band A Good Fight, in 2004, and in 2006, at the age of twenty-nine, was elected to the Arkansas House of Representatives and was sworn in on January 8, 2007 as the youngest member of the Arkansas 86th General Assembly.
Music background
Growing up in the Arkansas Delta, Woods and his brother, Dustin, were heavily influenced by the Memphis Music Scene and events held on Mud Island during the 1980s and early 1990s.
In 1993, after the family relocated from the Delta to Siloam Springs, Dustin Woods began to practice the guitar and was named most talented his senior year, 1997, at Siloam Springs High School. Dustin Woods had two bands in high school, and both performed in talent shows in his junior and senior years. Because of Jon Woods' interest in politics and sports, he was not as devoted to music as his brother during his high school years.