Johnny Winter

In 1962, a seventeen-year-old Johnny Winter and his brother were the only white kids at a B.B. King concert at a Beaumont, Texas club called the Raven, but that didn’t bother Winter one bit. Having already established himself as a smooth blues guitarist, he got the crowd to convince King to let him on stage, and King had no choice but to bring the kid up. Winter played a song with King’s guitar and left the stage to a standing ovation.

Winter has come a long way since hopping on B.B. King’s stage. He has produced three Grammy Award-winning albums for fellow blues legend Muddy Waters, has been nominated for Grammys for several of his own blues albums, and is ranked number seventy-four on Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Some of Winter’s most popular albums include Johnny Winter (1969), Saints & Sinners (1974), and I’m a Bluesman (2004). Winter was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1988.

Johnny Winter continues to stand the test of time and tours extensively, playing his hair-raising blues covers, originals, and timeless guitar licks at events like the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Swedish Rock Fest, and Chicago Blues Festival, among many other venues.