![]() The only whites in the crowd, they no doubt stood out. King at a Beaumont club called the Raven. There’s a famous story about a time in 1962 when Johnny and his brother went to see B.B. Clarence, who recorded for the swamp boogie specialty label Goldband, KRCO, Frolic, Diamond, Moon-Lite, Hall-Way and other regional labels. Who opened Winter’s eye’s and ears to rural blues and Cajun music. I always felt welcome.” He also became friends with Clarence Garlow, a deejay at the black radio station KJET in Beaumont. I went to black clubs all the time, and nobody ever bothered me. Looking back, he believes people in the black community knew that he was sincere, that he was genuinely possessed by the blues. ![]() Despite the brutal legacy, Johnny remembers never hesitating as a kid to venture into black neighborhoods to hear and play music. ![]() Mobs wandered the streets, businesses burned, martial law went into effect, and more than 2,000 uniformed National Guardsmen and Texas Rangers sealed off the town from the rest of the world until tempers cooled. The town had been side to one of the worst race riots in Texas history just nine months before Johnny’s birth. Racial tensions in Beaumont were still high in those days. He formed his first band, Johnny and the Jammers, in 1959 at the age of 15, with his 12-year-old brother Edgar on keyboards. Richardson – The Big Bopper of “Chantilly Lace” fame – and became hooked on 50’s rock & roll. Growing up in a rough-and-tumble town populated by oilfield wildcatters and shipyard workers, he spent long hours listening to a local deejay named J.P. Constantly shifting between simple country blues in the vein of Robert Johnson, to all-out electric slide guitar blues-rock, – Johnny has always been one of the most respected singers and guitar players in rock and the clear link between British blues-rock and American Southern rock (a la the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd.) Throughout the ’70s and ’80s, Johnny was the unofficial torch-bearer for the blues, championing and aiding the careers of his idols like Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker. Signing to Columbia records in 1969 called largest solo artist deal of it’s time, Johnny immediately laid out the blueprint for his fresh take on classic blues a prime combination for the legions of fans just discovering the blues via the likes of Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton. Writing in Rolling Stone magazine, after Winter’s death, David Marchese said, “Winter was one of the first blues rock guitar virtuosos, releasing a string of popular and fiery albums in the late Sixties and early Seventies, becoming an arena-level concert draw in the process” … “made an iconic life for himself by playing the blues”.Has been a guitar hero without equal. He was found dead in his hotel room two days after his last performance. Johnny Winter was professionally active until the time of his death near Zürich, Switzerland, on July 16, 2014. In 2003, he was ranked 63rd in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”. In 1988, he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, the first non-African-American performer to be inducted into the Hall. In 1980, Winter was on the cover of the first issue of Guitar World. King International Artist of The Year Award. At the 18th Maple Blues Awards in 2015, Winter was also posthumously awarded the B.B. The album also won the 2015 Blues Music Award for Best Rock Blues Album. In 2015 Johnny Winter posthumously won the Grammy Award for Best Blues Album for Step Back. Several of Winter’s own albums were nominated for Grammy Awards – Guitar Slinger (1984) and Serious Business (1985) for Best Traditional Blues Album, and Let Me In (1991) and I’m a Bluesman (2004) for Best Contemporary Blues Album. ![]() Johnny Winter produced three Grammy Award-winning albums by Muddy Waters – Hard Again (1977), I’m Ready (1978), and Muddy “Mississippi” Waters – Live (1979). HEY LOCO FANS – Happy Birthday to Texas Blues Legend Johnny Winter who was born this day in 1944! Winter was best known for his high-energy blues rock albums and live performances in the late 1960s and 1970s.
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