PIONEERS
John Watson Jr was born in Houston, Texas, on 3 February 1935. As a child he learned piano from his father, John Sr. However, like so many young black kids coming of age in the mid-to-late 1940s, it was the mighty T-Bone Walker, best known for his iconic composition Stormy Monday, that grabbed his ears and made him want to be a guitarist. T-Bone Walker’s influence over the subsequent course that blues and rock ’n’ roll took cannot be overestimated. A slew of great recordings from the late 40s found their way into the hearts of everyone from BB King to Chuck Berry to Jimi Hendrix – and young Watson was no exception.
Johnny acquired his first guitar courtesy of his grandfather, a preacher, who agreed to let Jr have one on the condition that he “never use it to play the Devil’s music” – namely, the blues. After his parents’ separation in 1950, Johnny moved with his mother to Los Angeles and quickly became a feature of the LA blues scene, clearly ignoring his grandfather’s request!
By the age of 15 Watson was working regularly in the city’s juke joints playing both guitar and piano. He also took time to check out the jazz clubs, too, and heard
