He took music lessons and sang in the church choir. 23, 1944, John Dawson Winter III grew up comfortably middle class, the son of a cotton broker-turned-building contractor.
“Any who picked up the guitar after 1968 was influenced by Johnny Winter.”īorn in Beaumont on Feb. “Johnny was playing this unbelievably fiery guitar, but he was trying to do it within this very traditional context, which was so mind-blowing to most young, white blues aficionados at the time,” Conforth said. However, Johnny’s July 12 show at the Lovely Days festival in Wiesen, Austria, turned out to be his last.īruce Conforth, a University of Michigan professor of American culture and a founding curator of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, said Winter blazed a musical trail by blending down-home blues and progressive playing. 22 performance at the City National Grove of Anaheim. Johnny was to have appeared with him on a U.S. More drawn to jazz and rock, Edgar Winter became famous in his own right. The condition also leaves albinos with severe vision problems. Both were born with albinism, a disorder that keeps the body from producing the pigments that color the skin, hair and eyes. Winter performed from time to time with his younger brother Edgar.
“He walks out on the stage unattended now - this is huge! He was sitting down for 15 years.” “He’s stopped drinking and he’s talking to people and is more accessible,” Nelson told the Jerusalem Post in 2013. In 2005, he weighed 90 pounds, but with the help of fellow musician Paul Nelson he managed to shake his drug dependencies, gain 60 pounds, and resume a vigorous touring schedule. Over the years, Winter had battled drug and alcohol addictions that made him appear prematurely frail. Winter, who had emphysema, was recently diagnosed with pneumonia, Lappen said.
His death in a Zurich hotel room was confirmed by John Lappen, his public relations manager. Johnny Winter, a rail-thin blues guitarist known for his scorching riffs, flowing white hair and gravelly, hard-times voice, died Wednesday in Switzerland at the end of a European tour.