BACK IN 2014, WE HAD AN INTERVIEW WITH GUITAR LEGEND ERIC JOHNSON, JUST AFTER HE RECORDED HIS LANDMARK SUMMIT MEETING WITH FELLOW GUITARIST MIKE STERN ON THE HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL COLLABORATION ECLECTIC. THAT TOUR WAS MANNA FROM HEAVEN FOR GUITAR FANS, AS THE COMBINATION OF JOHNSON’S ROCK CHOPS WITH STERN’S JAZZ HARMONICS WAS A THRILL FOR FANS FROM BOTH SIDES OF THE MUSICAL AISLE.
SINCE THEN, JOHNSON HAS TAKEN A STEP BACK AND DELVED INTO MORE INTROSPECTIVE ALBUMS, PLAYING THE PIANO AND SINGING SONGS OF HIS OWN AND FROM HIS EARLY INSPIRATIONS SUCH AS SIMON AND GARFUNKEL AND JIMI HENDRIX. HIS FIRST ONE FROM 2016, EJ, WAS A RICHLY CONTEMPLATIVE OUTING, AND HE’S RECENTLY RELEASED THE ENCORE EJ II WHICH INCLUDES SOME PASTORAL INSTRUMENTALS AS WELL AS AN INTRIGUING READ OF THE BEATLES’ ‘YOU’VE GOT TO HIDE YOUR LOVE AWAY’. ONCE AGAIN, JOHNSON PLAYS MOST OF THE INSTRUMENTS ON THIS REFLECTIVE GEM.
ERIC WAS KIND ENOUGH ONCE AGAIN TO SHARE HIS THOUGHTS BEHIND THESE ALBUMS AS WELL AS HIS PERSPECTIVE OF HIS MUSICIANSHIP AND CAREER.
LAST TIME WE TALKED, YOU WERE JUST STARTING YOUR TOUR WITH MIKE STERN. WHAT ARE YOUR REFLECTIONS OF THAT?
It was great; I definitely learned more about music because Mike knows a lot of stuff that I don’t. I learned from playing with another guitar player that has a lot of deep harmonic knowledge. We did three tours, and I just got a call from him, so maybe we’ll do another tour and record together.
EVERYONE I KNOW WHO SAW THOSE CONCERTS SAID IT WAS ONE OF THE GREATEST GUITAR WORKSHOPS OF ALL TIME
We’ve had a lot of people tell us they want us to explore it some more
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“There are arenas of sound where people are more pronounced, explored and matured than other players, but I don’t think anyone has the last word on anything”
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YOU’RE IN YOUR 60s. HOW ARE YOU ABLE TO STAY IN SHAPE WITH THE GRUELING TOURS?
It’s harder for me now than when I was 20. You definitely have to rest and eat right.
YOU ALSO DID SOME TOURS WITH JOE SATRIANI. HE SAID YOU ARE THE MOZART OF ROCK GUITAR
We’ve done multiple tours together. That is very flattering, and I don’t know about that (laughs). Just like Joe, there are so many incredible players out there. There are arenas of sound where people are more pronounced, explored and matured than other players, but I don’t think anyone has the last word on anything. It’s just that we contribute our own uniqueness, and when we celebrate that uniqueness we each realize that we all have a place in the big picture. It’s one of a kind, but when we look at the summation of all of us we realized that there is a lot of uniqueness and a lot of differences.
You have to kind of live in a bubble or illusion to think “I’m better than this guy” or “I’m farther along”. It’s just a matter of everyone having their own personal alphabet that they are contributing. I could never do a lot of the stuff that Joe or Joe do; it’s just different.
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“You have to kind of live in a bubble or illusion to think “I’m better than this guy” or “I’m farther along”. It’s just a matter of everyone having their own personal alphabet that they are contributing”
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I SEE GUITARISTS AS A MORE “ENCOURAGING CHALLENGE” THAN A COMPETITION
Yes, but it is nice and it means something to have your peers respect you. When you have people that respect you and you look up to them as well, and you admire what they’ve done, it’s just being part of the family.
98% of the people being part of the family don’t have to have the obsessive urge that they have to be the head of the family; they just want to be part of it.
YOU WENT FROM A TOUR GUITAR ALBUM AND TOUR WITH STERN, AND THEN WENT INTO A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT DIRECTION WITH YOUR NEXT ALBUM WHERE YOU PLAYED ACOUSTIC GUITAR AS WELL AS PIANO. WHAT WAS THE IMPETUS OF THAT?
I’ve always enjoyed acoustic guitar. I made the first one a few years ago and have this new one out that is semi-acoustic, with some electric guitar overdub. I enjoy it all.
ANY PARTICULAR ACOUSTIC GUITAR PLAYERS INSPIRE YOU?
There are a million of them: James Taylor, Paul Simon, Tommy Emmanuel, Bert Jansch, Joni Mitchell, Merle Travis, Michael Hedges as well as Andy McKee
HAVE YOU TRIED DOING THE TAPPING LIKE MCKEE AND EMMANUEL?
I do a tiny bit of it, but not very much; I’m more of a straight-on player.
I’M SURE PEOPLE WERE SURPRISED WHEN YOU STARTED PLAYING THE PIANO.
I actually started on piano when I was a kid. I was five years old when I took piano lessons. Pretty much my whole life I’ve written my music on piano. It’s the instrument that I relate to.
I learned to play the guitar by transposing the notes of the piano over to the guitar. Not that I’m a great pianist like Lang Lang or something (laughs), but it is my first instrument and first language. That’s what I relate the guitar to when I play guitar.
WHY HAVE YOU STAYED AWAY FROM THE PIANO FOR SO LONG ON STAGE?
I kept playing it at home and writing with it as well as transposing it to the guitar, but I think I just got over playing just the guitar as I thought “that’s just what people want me to do” but the whole while having this other thing that I’ve enjoyed doing.
I a point where I felt I had to be more comprehensive in balancing who and what I am, so I initiated the process, for better or worse. It’s writing songs, playing piano and guitar and kind of doing the whole musical picture. That’s what I’m trying to strengthen up right now; bring up music from my private life and say “This is the full me”.
That’s why people are running with fire on their back out of the building yelling “I’ve got to get away” (laughs). Now they see the real me and they’re running for their lives. (laughs)
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“I reached a point where I felt I had to be more comprehensive in balancing who and what I am, so I initiated the process, for better or worse. It’s writing songs, playing piano and guitar and kind of doing the whole musical picture. That’s what I’m trying to strengthen up right now; bring up music from my private life and say ‘This is the full me’“
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SERIOUSLY, HOW WAS THE RESPONSE IN CONCERT?
When I did the solo tour, it was totally expected. Now I’m trying to integrate it into the electric thing as well. As I did the integration in the beginning, it was like people were taken aback, thinking “What am I doing here?”
It’s now becoming more and more well received, and I’m getting people now thanking me for doing it. Regardless if it’s because of some incredible piano moment or something, people are starting to just enjoy the re-calibrating of the balance. I’m not just spending three hours just shredding my brains out on guitar.
I’m not trying to sound condescending by saying that, as that is what I do, and I love doing it. I don’t ever want to stop. I just think I need to stop and take a page from Jimi Hendrix who played a lot of guitar, but a lot of it was rhythm guitar, and a lot of it was based around serving the song and music. What better artist can I use than Hendrix to learn to explore the guitar but also realize I’m playing just a piece of it and not the whole thing?
I think people are starting to appreciate that. It’s taken awhile, but I now get people coming up to me and saying that they like the balance. We’re still blowing up and going crazy, but there’s also other things happening besides that. I think it’s more a reflection of what music is.
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“What better artist can I use than Hendrix to learn to explore the guitar but also realize I’m playing just a piece of it and not the whole thing?”
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YOUR ALBUMS ALSO INCLUDED TUNES FROM SIMON AND GARFUNKEL, WHICH MAY HAVE SURPRISED PEOPLE AS WELL.
I listened to Simon and Garfunkel growing up; they were one of the soundtracks to my youth. It wasn’t what I was playing with bands, or jamming with people, but that and Crosby, Stills and Nash’s first album and all of the early Joni Mitchell stuff I loved. I was constantly listening to that, and trying to learn to play it.
I had a guitar from the time I was a teenager and was always fiddling with it and trying to strengthen my knowledge.
WHO TURNED YOU ON TO THE JAZZ STANDARD “THE WORLD IS WAITING FOR THE SUNRISE”?
I started off playing the Yardbirds and Cream, The Rolling Stones and The Ventures. When I started working with some guys that were going to music school with the fusion band The Electromagnets I was thinking about all of these types of music other than what I was doing, things by Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt.
And then there was Wes Montgomery. I’d always been listening to Wes Montgomery even before I started listening to jazz guitar. I was listening to him back to when I was just 13 years old. I heard one note of his, and it totally went into my being. It was just the greatest guitar tone that has ever been.
Other than Wes I never got into jazz guitar until later with the fusion thing with McLaughlin and Weather Report and then I started going back in time and checking out Django or Les Paul and realizing “Hey, we don’t have anything new here except that we’ve turned the amps up loud”.
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“I’d always been listening to Wes Montgomery even before I started listening to jazz guitar… I heard one note of his, and it totally went into my being. It was just the greatest guitar tone that has ever been”
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“PIPELINE” MUST BE PART OF YOUR VENTURES DAYS
I started initially listening to The Ventures, and as far as guitar Nokie Edwards was just a beautiful guitar player. I learned how to play guitar from him.
IN THIS DAY AND AGE, AREN’T YOU A BIT SURPRISED THAT THERE IS STILL ROOM FOR INSTRUMENTAL BANDS LIKE YOURS AND SATRIANI’S? IT’S A RARE BIRD NOWADAYS.
I don’t think there is the acceptance that there used to be.
There’s a real paradox with the guitar. Everyone is now saying “The guitar is not as popular; people are not into it any more”, but the sales of guitars are up and up every year. It’s not going away. I think it’s morphing into something else.
I think people will always enjoy instrumental music, but it has to really jump out and say something; it’s got to connect with people.
There was a leeway period where it didn’t have to go that far and connect because we were all mesmerized by the technique. But now that we’ve been saturated by the mesmerization of the technique, we’re going to have to shift gears if we’re going want people to be appreciating instrumental guitar music.
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“I started going back in time and checking out Django or Les Paul and realizing ‘Hey, we don’t have anything new here except that we’ve turned the amps up loud’.”
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YOU DID THE G3 TOUR WITH SATRIANI. WHO ELSE WERE YOU WITH?
On the original tour I was with Joe and Steve Vai; we then did one in South America with Joe and John Petrucci
WITH THREE GUITARISTS WITH MAJOR CHOPS ON STAGE, HOW DO YOU AVOID A TRAFFIC JAM?
It’s a matter of really listening and trying to going forward and backward with the pulse. When there’s a dominant thing happening with somebody, the best thing for you to do is to support them, and there’s a lot of ways you can do that. You can play a double lead, or play rhythm or not play at all.
You’ve got to be sensitive and listen to what’s happening, not being in your own world and playing whatever you want.
WHAT’S INSPIRING YOU RIGHT NOW MUSICALLY?
I think Molly Tuttle is great. I listen to a lot of old stuff, but I think she’s a beautiful relatively new artist who does a lot.
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“I think people will always enjoy instrumental music, but it has to really jump out and say something; it’s got to connect with people”
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WHEN YOU SEE A GUITARIST, IS IT EASY OR DIFFICULT TO BE OBJECTIVE ABOUT THEM, OR CAN YOU JUST “TAKE IT IN”?
There are so many great players that can play circles around me. All you have to do is go to Youtube and you will be incredibly blown away.
I can appreciate the technique. I think you can get caught into this thing of “Oh, you’ve got to have technique” or you can get snobbish and say “you have to get 44,000 chords into your song”. And there’s ***the other side that says “If it’s not blues or folk with two chords then it’s not authentic”. You can get yourself into some camp and polarize yourself and say “This is the gospel way to be”.
But you have to throw all of those books out; it’s all an illusion. Anything can work. You have to respect someone like Itzhak Perlman as well as a Woody Guthrie. If you look behind them, it’s the same spirit that’s causing the music; it’s just a different color of the rainbow.
Personally, I love virtuosity. I get inspired by hearing these people play incredible music. But I also think what is important is how do you do it, how do you say it, and what is your motive and intention. Does it have an element of emotional connectivity to it?
200 years from now people will be freaking out over BB King, because one note and it’s over.
That’s 98% of it. And if you want to dedicate your life to that other 2%, it’s wonderful, but you’ve got to remember that it’s only 2%.
I’ve been guilty of it. I’ve made records, played shows and spent a number of years as an adult thinking that the 2% was 82%, but it’s not.
When I realized that, all of a sudden a light bulb went off and I understood why a “silly little song” is popular to people. It was a matter of the connectivity.
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“200 years from now people will be freaking out over BB King, because one note and it’s over”
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WHAT GUITARIST LIVING OR DEAD WOULD YOU PAY $1000 TO SEE PERFORM?
Wes Montgomery and Jimi Hendrix. Hopefully together!
WHAT IS INSPIRING YOU PERSONALLY?
Things that give me a repose from life.
Life can be tough enough as it is. I don’t need additions to make it more stressful. If I can get two hours listening to beautiful music or seeing a great movie that makes me connect with my heart or a bit wiser about thinking about things that heal, I’m happy.
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“Personally, I love virtuosity. I get inspired by hearing these people play incredible music. But I also think what is important is how do you do it, how do you say it, and what is your motive and intention. Does it have an element of emotional connectivity to it?That’s 98% of it. And if you want to dedicate your life to that other 2%, it’s wonderful, but you’ve got to remember that it’s only 2%”
ONE OF THE MOST ENJOYABLE THINGS ABOUT ERIC JOHNSON IS THAT YOU ALWAYS FEEL LIKE HE’S SHARING HIS LIFE WITH YOU. BE IT ON A SEARING SOLO DURING ‘CLIFFS OF DOVER’ OR AS A TROUBADOUR ON ONE OF HIS ALBUM TRACKS “LET A FRIEND FIND YOU.” REGARDLESS, JOHNSON HAS A WAY OF MAKING EACH NOTE COUNT, JUST AS EACH OF HIS ALBUMS IS ANOTHER PIECE OF MARBLE IN HIS RICHLY COLORED MUSICAL MOSAIC.