![]() His albums charted but weren’t million sellers, and he tried a more mainstream rock approach in 1970 with a full band, in fact, the McCoys of “Hang on Sloopy” fame. He played at Woodstock, though he wasn’t included in the film version. His best blues playing on record likely appears on these discs, with covers of blues standards like “Mean Mistreater,” and “Be Careful With a Fool,” along with old time rockers like “Miss Ann,” and “Johnny B Goode.” The latter, along with his blistering slide version of Bob Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited” from Second Winter, became highlights of his live shows - small wonder, since hearing him tear into “Johnny B” always seemed to sound like he was singing about himself. Second Winter, with his brother joining the band, soon followed, while earlier recordings began to appear on other labels. In 1969, with a trio that included Shannon, who later would play bass for Stevie Ray Vaughn, he quickly recorded his debut for his new label, Johnny Winter. One night we were sleeping on floors, and the next night we had a big mansion in New York. It didn’t hurt that Columbia label executives were in attendance in December of ’68 when Bloomfield had him sit in at the Fillmore East for a blazing reading of BB King’s “It’s My Own Fault.” His early album bassist Tommy Shannon recalls his quick rise: “We starved our asses off for a while. His break came after a Rolling Stone story in 1968 mentioned him, the “130 pound cross-eyed albino with long fleecy hair playing some of the gutsiest fluid blues guitar you ever heard.” Johnny became something of a sensation, with a New York manager and a bidding war to land him a major record deal, signing for a rumored, unheard-of $600,000. After the Bay area success of fellow Texan (and friend) Janis Joplin, Steve Miller, and other acts, there was considerable interest in the Texas blues scene. He cut some singles for small labels and barnstormed, settling in Houston in ’68. The early and mid-’60s was dues paying time for Johnny, who played in Chicago (where he met Mike Bloomfield, later with the Butterfield Blues Band), and the Southern blues circuit, in bands of his own, and with Edgar. Around this time, Johnny was sneaking into black blues clubs to hear Waters, Bobby Blue Bland, and BB King play the blues. He and Edgar formed a duo based on the Everly Brothers and in 1959 appeared on local TV several times, recorded singles, and went to New York for Ted Mack’s Amateur Hour auditions. ![]() Johnny started on clarinet, then ukulele, but gravitated toward guitar. “We both had a problem with our skin being the wrong color.” Growing up, he and his brother listened to plenty of ’50s rock ‘n’ roll on the radio-the Big Bopper of “Chantilly Lace” fame was a local disc jockey. He later attributed this to his kinship with black musicians. Having to take special education classes in high school, he got into a lot of fights, which he felt led to a sense of alienation. Johnny was born Februin Beaumont, Texas, like his younger brother Edgar, an albino, his crossed eyes seeing only 20/400 vision in his better eye. In his youth he took Texas blues nationwide, becoming an American guitar hero after the British blues boom made players like Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page superstars later on, he played on and produced excellent blues albums by blues great Muddy Waters, while returning the focus to the blues himself. His clean, quicksilver blues guitar lines - on both regular and slide guitar - and his soulful, growling voice conveyed an old soul who had lived the blues. ![]() The blues-rock guitar virtuoso passed away July 16 at age 70 after a career marked by breakthroughs, comebacks, personal health struggles, and a lot of great music. His name was so cool, kind of like “Billy Summer,” and being snow-white, it fit him perfectly. The flowing mane of white hair, the skinny guy with all the tattoos, and the cowboy hat with two rattlesnake skulls on the brim, howling and playing lightning-fast guitar riffs - Johnny Winter was always an iconic figure.
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