Johnny Winter

I’ve been a fan of Johnny Winter since the early 70s. Back in those days, a 15-year-old, could get into a general admission venue, order a drink and get up real close to the stage. I did this many times with Johnny Winter and Edgar Winter and others. I got to see Johnny one last time, in February of 2014 at the Suffolk Theater on Long Island. A wonderful place where you can have dinner, and see a show afterwards without leaving your seat. Or as I like to think of it, general admission with a seat in table. I told my wife, that I was making a pilgrimage to see Johnny one last time. I knew very well about Johnny’s health issues, and the toll that substance abuse had taken over the years. I'm a guitar player, in my recreational life, and Johnny has been more important to me than almost any other guitar player for the past 40 years. I knew he wasn’t going to last much longer, and I had to see him one last time and pay my respects, to one of the greatest American guitar players ever! Johnny would die five months later in July at the age of 70, and I am so glad I got to see him again. Now this was not a totally happy story, the PA sound was gone, and no one could hear Johnny singing. I’m not sure who was responsible, but only a few feeble attempts were made to fix the sound, and I sat and watched in horror, as Johnny played while the only vocal sound that came out, was through the stage monitors pointed away from the audience. If you look at the video at the top of this page, you can see how terrible it actually was. I’d like to kick the person responsible right in the nuts, for treating a legend like this so poorly, for being so incompetent with sound equipment, and for making this elderly artist, who was visibly struggling, have to work way harder than he should have. Fucking no respect left in this world… a pox on you all and your families! Rest in peace Johnny Winter. You are already missed.
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