“Johnny and John Lennon were very similar in the studio. They didn’t want to make everything too slick. John Lennon knew exactly what he wanted; the concept was in his head; we just had to execute it. With Winter, it was basically the same way. He came in, he had the songs written, he knew what he was gonna do.”
Johnny used a MXR Phase 90 on several songs, a monumental departure for a man who always said he hated effects. He discovered it at Thunderhead’s Bogalusa ranch house.
“Johnny was writing songs for
John Dawson Winter III
when he was staying with us, playing on and producing our record,” said Rush. “He wrote ‘Stranger’ in our living room. When we rehearsed, he played through my amp. I had this MXR Phase 90 phase shifter lying on the floor in a large box. He said, ‘What is that?’ ‘A phase shifter.’ He said, ‘What does that do?’ ‘Well, step on it.’ So he stepped on it and he heard that phase-shifter sound and it became part of his sound. The only effect he ever really liked; there were some years where he had it on all the time.”
Another discovery he made during that period was Vandermint Dutch Chocolate Liqueur, which satiated both his love for chocolate and yen for alcohol. He drank a 750-milliliter white ceramic bottle by himself at each of the sessions.
“It was like drinking Bosco, but it was potent,” said Ferrante. “He always came in with the same stuff and got so smashed on it. One night we were just kibitzing around, and Shelly called him a bleach-bottle blonde. Johnny says, ‘No, this is my hair,’ and Shelly said, ‘I don’t believe you.’ So he drops his drawers in front of me and Shelly to show us that he is blonde everywhere. He was like a twig; he looked like a piece of birch bark. There was no color, no pigment anywhere. We were laughing, he started chasing Shelly around the console, and I ran out of the room. Later, he came walking out into the hallway. By this time he had his pants on. He was three sheets to the wind but he was holding up pretty good until we started talking. He was talking to me, leaning against the wall, and all of a sudden—like in slow motion—he went down very slowly and finally hit the floor. He just started laughing; he was so tipsy at that point, he didn’t know what was going on. It was one of the most hilarious nights we ever had with him.”
With the completion of his latest LP, Johnny was ready to go back out on tour. Despite his reluctance to use yet another second guitar player, Hobbs convinced him he needed a rhythm guitarist to fill out the sound and add to their live performances. Johnny hired Floyd Radford in June 1974. “Floyd’s a real good guitar player,” says Johnny. “He played whatever I wanted, whatever I needed—he was real good at it.”
Radford had played on
Edgar Winter’s White Trash
, released in 1971, and toured with Edgar’s band. He played with both White Trash and Tin House until June 1971, when Johnny went into rehab. “That’s when everything around Johnny fell apart, including Tin House,” said Radford. “I left Edgar and White Trash, and went back to Orlando with Tin House to regroup.”
Paul thought Tin House needed a fourth player, but when they returned to New York as four pieces, Paul passed on managing them. In June 1974, when Radford was literally a starving musician in L.A., he looked up Paul at a music convention, hoping to sell him some equipment.
“I was real poor, so when I found out Steve Paul was going to the Columbia Records convention, I went there to try to sell him some guitar speakers,” said Radford. “Steve said no, but Johnny needs a guitar player, so put a tape together and send it to me.”
With no equipment except a tape recorder, Radford put a rough tape together, and Johnny called and invited him to New York for an audition. “I had a Gibson ES 355 and one Marshall at the audition,” said Radford. “Randy Jo was on acoustic, Richard was on drums, and Johnny was playin’ the Firebird. We jammed for about an hour and a half, one song after another, and Richard recorded it on Johnny’s cassette player. I kept up pretty good. I had practiced songs on Johnny’s albums with Randy and Richard, especially
John Dawson Winter III.
“After the audition, Johnny says, ‘We’re gonna go in the other room and talk—you stay here.’ I stayed in the practice room, biting my nails, wondering if I got the job. When they all came back in, Johnny says, ‘We like your playing; you’re in. We’re going to tell that other guy not even to come.’”
Like Brockie before him, Radford moved into a communal house in Connecticut, and rehearsed with the band for a week before embarking upon a European tour. He also experienced a sense of closeness and family he didn’t feel when he knew Johnny only as a member of his opening act.
“Johnny was very personable,” said Radford. “It was like talking to your brother or your best friend. We got really close. After Johnny put down his guitar, we’d talk about things. Johnny would go on and on about not wanting to be commercial, wanting to play blues.”
Although Johnny still longed to return to the music of his idols, he played predominately rock ’n’ roll during that phase of his career, with a live set list that included “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” “Johnny B. Goode,” “Boney Moronie,” “Rock ’n’ Roll People,” and “It’s All Over Now.”
“Johnny had a love-hate relationship with rock ‘n’ roll,” said Radford. “Johnny is a blues guitar player and he was made to play rock ‘n’ roll. Everybody was trying to get Johnny to be a little more commercial, but I don’t think his heart was in it fully.”
Radford played a straight-ahead rock style of guitar and needed a bit of coaching to develop a rock ‘n’ roll style. “I grew up playing a lot of British-style rock: Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck; I was definitely a rock player,” said Radford. “Rock is pretty solid and straightforward. Guitar players play it very straight, down the middle, down the line. The roll part of rock ‘n’ roll is little to the left or the right. Randy was a very strong rock ‘n’ roller and helped me develop that rock ‘n’ roll style.”
Live performances ran from ninety minutes to two hours; their blistering rendition of “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” was one of the biggest crowd pleasers. Hobbs and Radford clicked musically, and it’s evident in videos of those performances, where they’re jumping in unison and playing off of each other like musical bookends. Radford also fit in well with Johnny, and unlike Brockie, respected his position as second guitarist.
“Johnny was the leader and I’m good about following,” said Radford. “We worked out solos and changes. He was very generous. He’d take the first solo and I’d take the second one, or Johnny would play a slide guitar solo, then I’d get a solo. I was very honored and excited that Johnny allowed me to play solos.”
The fall 1974 European tour opened in London with a live studio performance for the Old Grey Whistle Test on BBC 2, Britain’s premiere television music show. Radford had only rehearsed with the band three or four times, so he was understandably nervous. Johnny alleviated his fears with a lesson that had a strong impact on Radford’s style.
“Johnny says, ‘Don’t worry about it; play how you feel,’” said Radford. “‘Play how you feel’ is one of the things I learned from Johnny. We played ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’ and a lot of songs on the
John Dawson Winter III
album. Johnny was never concerned about playing things the same way. Sometimes he’d come out and change things around, which made me a little nervous at times. But it was exciting to follow him.”
That three-week European tour included sold-out performances in London, Paris, Munich, Frankfurt, Copenhagen, and Stockholm, and a TV show in Bremen, Germany. “European audiences weren’t much different than the ones in the States,” said Radford. “Johnny Winter fans are all very loud.”
Johnny loved traveling on his own plane during the
Saints and Sinners
tour. When he heard the jet from the Led Zeppelin tour was available, he leased and customized that aircraft.
“The jet was one step bigger than a Learjet,” said Radford. “He painted JOHN DAWSON WINTER on the nose. When we landed in private airports, we’d be greeted by two limousines. The band would climb into one limousine; they put the luggage in the other one.”
As Johnny’s fame escalated, so did the size of the venues. During the ’74-’75 U.S. tour, he played stadiums that held 50,000 to 75,000 people. Although he had vowed to slow down after his stint in rehab, that twelve-week tour only gave him a week off once a month. “We would go for nights in a row; that was the hardest thing,” said Radford. “Flying to the next city, sound check, playing the show and party in the room afterward, get very little sleep that night, go to the next city, do another sound check, and do it all over again. There was little time for anything else.”
A private person, Johnny kept to himself on the road, but occasionally he’d meet Hobbs and Radford at a restaurant for dinner. Although he was the star and the biggest moneymaker, they always had a hard time getting him to pick up the check. “When we ended up at a restaurant with Johnny after a show, we’d always look at him, but Johnny never paid,” said Radford with a laugh. “He’d say, ‘I ain’t got no money.’ That was Johnny—‘I ain’t got no money.’ He finally did pay, after we made him.”
Johnny hired Peter Frampton, an up-and-coming artist, as his opening act. With a mobile recording unit set up by the stage every night, Frampton recorded all of his shows. His performances at four venues during that tour appeared on
Frampton Comes Alive
, a double album released on A&M Records in January 1976. “After that record hit the charts, the tables turned,” said Radford. “He’d be selling out 100,000-seat stadiums, so we’d have to open for him.”
In fall 1975, Johnny joined forces with the Edgar Winter Group (with Rick Derringer) to play a series of dates recorded for two live albums:
Captured Live
! (with Johnny’s band) and
Together
(with both bands). Edgar, who was still riding the wave of the success of “Frankenstein” and “Free Ride,” both hits from his
They Only Come Out at Night
LP, headlined the shows, which consisted of a set by Johnny’s band, a set by the Edgar Winter Group, and all the musicians onstage for the finale. Although both bands rehearsed together before the tour, having three guitar players onstage created intense competition. “Playing with three guitars was hard,” admitted Johnny.
Radford described the vibe between Johnny and Derringer during that tour as “love/hate.” “Guitar players are very egotistical,” said Radford. “We love each other and we hate each other. So, there was a lot of competition and fighting. I loved it, even though it was very, very competitive. I was eighteen years old and trying to keep up with those guys. Occasionally I’d throw out a lick that they didn’t do. I’d come back the next show and sure enough they’d be playing it. I did the same thing—I listened to their licks and said, ‘Okay, you steal my licks, I’ll steal yours.’ It was an honor to have somebody play one of your licks, even though they won’t admit it.”
Radford also noticed a touch of sibling rivalry when Johnny and Edgar shared the stage. “Johnny and Edgar are brothers and act like brothers,” he said. “They love each other, but they fight with each other. They both want to get their way. They’re different in terms of how they express themselves. Johnny plays from the heart. He’s not concerned with technicality or how things are arranged or how every riff is going to sound. Edgar also plays from the heart, but he’s a little more of a mindset that it has to be technically correct. Johnny is fun-loving; he enjoys the music and wants to have some fun. Edgar does too, but he’s very, very intelligent—keeps up with what’s going on in the world, is technical about a lot of things. Even though they’re brothers, Johnny and Edgar are almost opposites.”
Johnny Winter And Live
had been his biggest-selling LP, so Johnny decided to release a live recording that captured the energy and excitement of his latest band, as well as a live album of both bands with songs he and Edgar had played in the Southern bar circuit ten years earlier. Those albums were recorded at shows at three California venues—the Swing Auditorium in San Bernardino, San Diego Sports Arena, and the Oakland Coliseum Stadium—with the bands playing the same set all three nights.
No expense was spared in packaging the live albums. For
Captured Live
!, Mick Rock shot the cover photo of Johnny jamming on his Firebird, his head flung back, his hair flying. Jim Marshall shot the back cover photo from behind the stage, capturing the band in action dwarfed by the massive audience at the Oakland Coliseum Stadium. Richard Avedon shot a striking profile of Johnny and Edgar for the front cover of
Together
and an artistic shot that highlighted their white hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes for the back cover. One inside sleeve showcased a collage of childhood photos from their mother’s attic; the other sleeve included photos of Johnny, Edgar, David Holiday, and Willard Chamberlain (of Johnny and the Jammers) with B. B. King at the Raven Club in 1960, and Johnny and the Jammers playing a New Year’s Eve gig in 1964.
Blue Sky Records released both albums in 1976.
Captured Live
! featured Johnny on guitar and vocals, Radford on guitar, Hobbs on bass, and Hughes on drums.
Together
featured Johnny on guitar and lead vocals; Edgar on saxophone and lead vocals; Derringer on guitar and background vocals; Radford on guitar; Hobbs on bass; Dan Hartman (Edgar’s bass player) on piano and background vocals; and Hughes and Chuck Ruff on drums. Johnny and Edgar worked out the songs with a minimum of solos and no jamming to keep the emphasis on the vocals.
“Randy and Floyd had both played in White Trash so they knew all of Johnny’s songs and my songs too,” said Edgar. “It was really great. It turned into an entirely new band with a different feel; it was very powerful. I loved the way the music felt with two drummers.”