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Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson - from bluesman to

funkster

by

John Holmes

Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson tends to be rather overlooked when people start talking
about the influential blues guitarists, which I think is rather unfair for someone who
had such a wide ranging career, produced some classic recordings on the way, and
a lot of great music across a number of genres.

Watson was born on 3 February 1935 in Houston, Texas. His parents ran a laundry
business, so were better off than
many who lived in the Third Ward

ghetto. His Grandfather was a
preacher who played guitar, and
when he died young Watson

inherited the instrument, with
instruction from his Grandmother
that he should only play spiritual

music on it! Needless to say -
“blues was the first thing I taught
myself to play”!

Prior to that Johnny was
encouraged by his parents to learn
the piano, in fact with early instruction from his Father. At a very young age, he and

his friend Teddy Reynolds, who was also learning the piano, would sneak into the
blues clubs, such as Shady’s Playhouse, to listen to the acts. Their favourite was
Amos Milburn. However, with others such as T-Bone Walker, Gatemouth Brown,
Charles Brown, and Lightnin’ Hopkins also working the clubs there were plenty of

opportunities to listen and learn. The Houston scene was very much leaning towards
big band R&B, and Watson had a life long love of this style of music.

In 1950 his parents split, and he moved to Los Angeles with his father. At school he
studied saxophone and jazz piano (later in his career he recorded several jazz piano
albums). A career in music seemed to beckon, even at a young age.

Whilst at school he entered many talent competitions, and at one of them he met
Chuck Higgins, who asked him to play piano in his band, The Mellotones. They
subsequently signed to the Combo record label, and had a minor hit with ‘Pachuko

Hop’, the flip side of which, ‘Motor Head Baby’, featured Johnny on vocals.