Johnny Winter just died in Zurich Switzerland on July 16. He was 70. He was not just an awesome blues guitarist, but an awesome rock guitarist as well. Here’s his cover of Jumping Jack Flash

On one of his albums that I own his rhythm guitarist is Rick Derringer. Prolly not an apt term since he did his share of lead guitar work. He was in the band when it was called, Johnny Winter And. Johnny and Rick traded lead riffs on It’s My Own Fault and on all of the other songs on the album. I’m not sure but I think that’s Rick Derringer in this video.

I saw Johnny live once at SIU Edwardsville which was an outdoor venue across the Mississippi River from St. Louis. I remember seeing the Grateful Dead (who played for about five hours) and Yes, where they played the entire Close to the Edge album there as well.

So I was sitting in my apartment with my friend Tom and we had just finished eating some spareribs I had just BBQ’ed. We were smoking a joint, quaffing some brews, and listening to KSHE (the best rock station in the world!) when he said, “Yannow, we oughta go see Johnny.” So we hopped in my car and drove to Edwardsville. Back then, you could take coolers on to the grounds. We had a few beers with us but we ran out. There were some people behind us with a keg, so I pulled out my P-38 and took the tops off our beer cans. Tom turned around and drew some beer from the keg. No one noticed. It wasn’t until the third round that he got caught. They were pissed! He offered them some weed as compensation but they turned him down. It was a great night! As I said in an earlier post, I loved the 70’s!

All of the recent stuff I’ve seen of him he’s been sitting down while playing. Heroin and hard living take their toll. RIP Johnny! A musical giant has left the earth.

It’s My Own Fault Johnny Winter and Rick Derringer.