Legendary guitarist isn’t letting age, or anything else, slow him down
Johnny Winter plus the Gypsy Sons
Where: State Theatre, 220 N. Washington St., Falls Church
When: 7 p.m. doors, 9 p.m. show Dec. 5
Info: $26; 703-237-0300; thestatetheatre.com
If you think “Bony Moronie” is just an oft-covered novelty song, you’ve never heard the rendition by blues great Johnny Winter.
At his last local gig, Winter’s set list included his version of the song, just about blowing the doors off the club, prompting audience members to jump out of their chairs and twirl and dance. Luckily for D.C.-area music fans, the original “Guitar Slinger” now beams with health and is back on the road.
“Now that’s a guitar player,” KISS co-founder Paul Stanley said. Stanley, himself a lauded player, said his earliest inspirations included Winter.
“I was always listening to Johnny Winter, Muddy Waters [and other guitar greats],” he said. “Boy, that guy is killer.”
Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Derek Trucks are just a few of the other guitarists — who are listed along Winter on Rolling Stone’s roundup of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” — that revere the Grammy Award-winning elder statesman of blues guitar.
They aren’t alone. Winter, who signed his first record deal in 1969, is still deified by scores of fans.
As many know, the downside to that unconditional hero was Winter’s heroin addiction.
“It was real hard to have people say they worshipped me,” he said during a recent interview. “Heroin is a horrible drug. I started using because [when you take it] you just don’t think about anything anymore.”
Now free of a manager many called an enabler, Winter is healthy and plays with a fervor that challenges those decades younger than him, prompting speculation he soon will release new records or agree to star-studded collaborations.
Paul Nelson, Winter’s manager, who is credited by many with saving both Winter’s life and career, said he fielded offers but no upcoming plans had been finalized.
That’s heady stuff for a man who spent his childhood growing up in Beaumont, Texas. It was his father, an amateur musician, who encouraged him and his brother Edgar to play music. Although the Winter brothers wanted to pursue wind instruments — in keeping with the musicians they admired in swing bands — their father swayed them toward string instruments when they were in elementary school.
At age 12, Johnny Winter’s dad gave him his grandfather’s guitar, setting the young man on the road to a legendary music career.
“It’s not like work at all,” Winter said of his decision to frequently tour and play. “I just always loved it.”
