My favorite memories of Johnny were at Winterland and twice at the Stone in San Francisco do to the intimate size of the clubs. The last was at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano 4 years ago where he was obviously not well and very frail. I had the privilege of seeing Johnny play over half a dozen times throughout the years. Johnny simply smoked each and every other guitar player of his day and yes he made it look easy! I have never again seen such a performance and will always remember it. ![]() ![]() I had read an article in Rolling Stone about the "Great White Wonder from Texas" but had never heard Johnny play just when I thought the concert couldn’t get any better it did when Johnny walked out onto the stage around mid-night and leaning into the mike said softly “what’s happening” –then broke into Memory Pain - it was the last thing he said to the audience and proceeded to play for over 2 ½ hours into early Easter morning receiving an ever bigger standing ovation than did the Allman Brothers. They played their first album start to finish with no breaks for applause- Whipping Post was the close – they received a half hour standing ovation (no exaggeration). The act before Johnny was introduced as a new band from Malcolm Georgia that had an album that the MC (Wavy Gravy) stated was to be released shortly – it turned out to be the Allman Brothers Band. The only guitarist to come close to Johnny’s skill in our life time was Stevie Ray Vaughn who we also lost too soon. Johnny never seemed to run out of ideas on the guitar’s neck - just when you thought he can’t possibly do any more – he did and he did it over and over. Playing in a rock and roll band for years I was, as well as my band members, all simply amazed at Johnny's technical skills and virtuosity as a guitar player. This was the last of the big festivals with Woodstock and Atlanta happening in 1969. I first saw Johnny play in 1970 during Easter break at a large music festival outside of Orlando Florida.
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