I just wanted to become a better musician. I loved the beauty of chords, harmony, rhythm. At that time, he says, “I had no desire to be famous. 1 hit single, “Frankenstein,” in 1973, and reaching the Top 20 with “Free Ride” several months later. In 1970, Edgar Winter released his own debut album, Entrance, and, within a few years, he had become a star- logging a No. This can’t really be happening.’ And from that point on, it made me realize that music could be so much more than just my own personal, private escape world.” I said, ‘How did I get here? What am I doing here? This is so surreal. I found myself looking out over this endless sea of humanity, as far as the eye could see. I’d never really experienced anything like that. “There was a feeling of unity-the feeling that we were part of something bigger than a festival, that we could make a difference. “We flew in by helicopter, and the first thing that struck me was the vibe,” Edgar says. Johnny asked his brother to share the stage with him at the game-changing 1969 festival, and Edgar still remembers every detail. Looking back, Edgar believes that one particular gig truly brought him into the spotlight and changed his life-Woodstock. He actually showed me that being albino can be cool.” Because of his unique look, he made it work for him. I just sort of ignored it and withdrew into my world of music, but he turned it around. We shared a worldview that nobody else really had. “Both being albino, we had a different mindset. “He showed me something that I never would have thought of,” Edgar says. “Nobody even knew Johnny had a brother,” Edgar recalls, “and he’d say, ‘Now, I’m going to bring up my little brother Edgar.’ Oh, there’s another one?!”īy “another one,” Edgar is not only referring to the fact that there were two Winters out there making music. In fact, Edgar readily acknowledges that it was Johnny who introduced him to the live-music world, inviting the younger Winter to join him onstage at a time when Johnny was just emerging outside of the brothers’ native Texas. “Johnny has always been my all-time musical hero and, if it weren’t for him, I certainly wouldn’t be in the position I am today,” he says. Edgar, who had played piano on the original, also picks up the saxophone this time around. Edgar’s keyboards and vocals are dominant throughout the album, and he even joins the horn section on a stunning cover of “Drown in My Own Tears,” a blues ballad made famous by Ray Charles and included on Johnny’s self-titled debut album for Columbia Records in 1969. “Stranger,” originally on 1974’s John Dawson Winter III, features a one-time-only collective including Starr, Walsh and McDonald, while “Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo,” the Rick Derringer composition from 1970’s Johnny Winter And, boasts a raging guitar solo by Lukather. Goode,” all highlights of any Johnny Winter concert. Among the tracks reworked for the tribute are Johnny Winter blues favorites like “Still Alive and Well,” “I’m Yours and I’m Hers” and “Lone Star Blues”-the latter featuring only Keb’ Mo’ and Edgar-as well as rock classics like “Highway 61 Revisited,” “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B.
The compilation features songs written by or associated with Johnny, performed by Edgar and an all-star cast that includes Joe Walsh, Ringo Starr, Derek Trucks, Billy Gibbons, Steve Lukather, Michael McDonald, Joe Bonamassa and many others. The result, Brother Johnny, was released in April by Quarto Valley Records. You owe it to yourself and to the world.’” “You owe that acknowledgment to your brother. “I spent years not making the record and, finally, I was talking to my wife, Monique, and she said, ‘Of course you should do it,”’ he says. More than that, it felt like people sensing an obvious business opportunity-‘Oh, Johnny Winter-let’s do a tribute.’”Įdgar eventually agreed to honor his sibling-on his own terms. “I had been approached by several labels with the idea of a tribute album, but it just didn’t feel right to me. “Johnny’s passing was very unexpected,” the 75-year-old multi-instrumentalist says. It took Edgar Winter years to come around to the idea of releasing a tribute album for his older brother, the great blues-rock guitarist Johnny Winter, who died at age 70 in 2014.
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