By Mark Gould
This month marks the 11th anniversary of Soundwaves Magazine. Through the years a wide array of musicians and musical styles have been written about in these pages. From the Grateful Dead in the very first issue to Blink 182 last month to many local and regional musicians, we’ve always gone after what we considered to be interesting people and stories. However, if there’s been one thread that has bound everything together all these years it’s without question our love of blues music. It’s probably fair to say that at least half of all Soundwaves covers featured blues or blues based acts. We’ve proudly featured interviews with all the great bluespeople of our time. B.B. King, Taj Mahal, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, Lou Rawls, Bonnie Raitt, Koko Taylor, Luther Allison, Joe Louis Walker, Susan Tedeschi, Kim Wilson, Lucky Peterson, John Hammond, Keb Mo, James Cotton, Jimmie Vaughan, and countless others have been interviewed exclusively for this publication. I’m sure we would have interviewed Jimmie Vaughan’s kid brother but sadly he died tragically the very same month Soundwaves started. There is however one name missing from this list. Missing until now that is. For literally ten years I’ve been trying to get an interview with the elusive Johnny Winter. I honestly feel it would have been easier to get Mick Jagger or Bob Dylan on the phone than Johnny Winter considering how much effort I put into it. To paraphrase one of his songs, I’m as serious as a heart attack when I tell you this. Finally, after all these years, on the evening of Wednesday July 11th at 9:15 while I was sitting around watching a rerun of The West Wing did the phone ring and I picked it up and heard the voice on the other end say, "Hi Bill, this is Johnny Winter."
Obviously I’ve always been a huge fan of Johnny Winter and I’m not alone when I think of him as one of the greatest electric guitar players this world has ever seen. He is also a totally unique individual. Here’s this skinny albino from Texas, covered with tattoos, wearing a big cowboy hat and playing electric blues louder and faster than anyone anybody has ever heard before. He’s got a lot going on these days too. He is right now working on another disc for his current label Pointblank Records. This label is a subsidiary of the Virgin Records group and Johnny has been with them for the past ten years. Also, his label of the 80’s, Alligator Records, has just released a Deluxe Edition version of some of his best work from those years. And now comes word that Columbia/Legacy Records will soon be reissuing a greatest hits package from Johnny’s work with that label in the early seventies.
With all that said I now know why Johnny doesn’t like doing interviews. Let’s just say that loquacious is not a word I would use to describe him. Still, he is Johnny Winter and it was an honor to talk to him. I didn’t get much out of him, but here is what I did get.
BH – I hear you’re working on a new record.
JW – "Yeah we sure are."
BH – I understand Tom Hambridge who recently produced Susan Tedeschi’s last record working with you.
JW – "He’s producing part of it."
BH – How far along are you?
JW – "We got two songs done."
BH – Is it still exciting to do a new record?
JW – "Yeah, it’s always exciting."
BH – Will it be all electric?
JW – "I’m not sure about that. I might do some acoustic songs too."
BH – Is it easier working with the people at Pointblank than it was Alligator Records?
JW -"I felt I could do a better job not working with someone like Bruce Iglauer (Alligator owner). We had disagreements on a lot of things. We may have made good records, but they were hard to make."
BH – What is it that makes a good producer?
JW – "Somebody who can work with you and make it come out the way you want it to come out, not the way somebody else thinks it should be done. The producer should be trying to get on tape what it is the artist wants."
BH – Alligator has just released a Deluxe Edition of some of your best work.
JW – "Yeah, I like that album too."
BH – And now Columbia/Legacy is reissuing some of your early work with them.
JW – "Yeah, they sure are."
BH – Do you consult with the people at Columbia when a project like this is taking place?
JW – "No, it’s going to be their idea of some of the best work that I’ve done when I was with them and I hope I agree with their choices. From what I’ve heard so far it’s going to be pretty good. There’s a song with me and Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper that’s going to be on it."
BH – The Columbia work seemed like it was more rock and roll and the Alligator work more hard blues. Do you agree with that?
JW – "Yeah, I just felt like doing it that way. I got tired of doing rock and roll and I wanted to do a little more straight blues."
BH – Of course you worked with Muddy Waters after the Columbia and before Alligator, what was that like for you?
JW – "Oh that was great man. That was one of the high points in my career I think was working with Muddy."
BH – What did you learn from Muddy?
JW – "How to be a gentleman I guess. Muddy was always nice to everybody. And he convinced me that I could make it playing blues, that I didn’t have to do rock and roll. I really enjoyed working with Muddy. He was a great guy."
BH – After working with Muddy you did a project with Sonny Terry right?
JW – "Right, we did a record called Whoopin’. Sonny’s old drummer Cy Pominick set up this little thing. He convinced me that I should do it. Willie Dixon played bass and you can’t beat that. I really enjoyed that record a whole lot and I wish some more people had heard it."
BH – Changing the subject, how long have you been living in Connecticut?
JW – "Two years man. You know it’s close enough to New York so you can get in there easy enough but far enough away so you don’t feel like you’re in the city."
BH – Has it been a while since you’ve lived in Texas?
JW – "Yeah a long time. I lived in New York for thirty years."
BH – Are you planning to tour any time soon?
JW – "Yeah, we’re going to England in August I believe. We’ll be there for a week. We went to Scandinavia on our last tour."
BH – Do you still enjoy the traveling?
JW – "Yeah but I like traveling on the bus best. I don’t really like to fly."
BH – Johnny do you ever think about the musical legacy you’ll be leaving behind some day?
JW – "Yeah I do. I’m proud of what I managed to do in music. I love it."
BH – Is there anyone in the music business that you haven’t worked with that you would like to some day work with?
JW – "I’d like to do something with B.B. King."
BH – You know B.B. recently wrote an autobiography. Is that something you’d ever consider?
JW – "I’d like to. I think my story would be interesting. I’d like to do that."
BH – You would really have to open up and tell us everything.
JW – "Yeah but I don’t mind doing that at this point in my life."
BH – You know Johnny, there would probably be a market for your story. Your fans really do love you.
JW – "Yeah and it makes me feel real good too."
Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of Johnny Winter’s music. His records such as "Let Me In," "Hey, Where’s Your Brother?," "Guitar Slinger," and "Serious Business," are some of the best blues/rock recordings ever made. It’s clear to me now that anything Johnny Winter has wanted to say he has said through his music. In fact, if guitar notes were words, Johnny would be the most talkative musician ever.