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Man, he’s such a great producer, he’s a musician himself. “I didn’t know of him before, the record company selected him, as he was standing around, I suppose, so they gave him the album. Johnson and Eringa first worked together on Going Back Home, an album which profited both parties immensely.

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We took some ideas from the Roger album getting it done quickly, recording the album in thirteen days”.ĭave Eringa might not be one of the better known producers in rock, though his involvement with the Manic Street Preachers, Ocean Colour Scene and Kylie Minogue in the nineties suggests this is a producer who knows how to cut them. It’s about awaiting death, but it sounds a bit more jolly than that. One night, I was playing to the guys and Dave Eringa, my producer, said it was a good song. “There were songs I was writing, thinking I would never do anything with them because of the cancer. Lead single Marijuana is a raw, ultra placed raving blues track, complete with killer harmonicas and Dylan Howe’s rubbery, elastic drums. I think they wanted another Roger album, but Roger is a very busy man, so I said I’d do my own”.īlow Your Mind is the result of that conversation, a raw, cavernous cascade of guitar greatness and rock escapades. So, I was resting, and getting myself back into things, when the record company suggested another album. “While I was there recuperating, when I should have been dead, the Roger album was doing very well. “They saved my life at Addenbrooke’s Hospital” Johnson effuses.

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In 2014, it was announced that Johnson was cancer free following a radical surgery. It’s better that way”.Īs curtains closers go, it would have been a very fine one, Johnson’s fiery playing vigorous with Daltrey’s sultry vocals (who was in finer form than any album since Who Are You). Which is how rock should be, get it down, not sitting around too much in the studio talking. But it was good for the music, quick and fast. We didn’t have the time otherwise, we both thought this was it. “As it happens, we had to do it quickly, get in and put it down. In 2014, he released Going Back Home, a collaborative effort with Roger Daltrey, both thinking it would be Johnson’s last. Diagnosed in 2013 with cancer, he gave an interview with Front Row, detailing he didn’t have long to live, opting to give a farewell tour. He has a new album, one which even he admits he’d never see come to life. I knew Hugh since the seventies, I was good mates with Jean-Jacques Burnel from The Stranglers, we shared a flat, so we’ve known each other a long time and we want it to be a good show”. But if he’s not there to sing them, well, then, I gotta do it. “Not only as a singer, but as a person, he had presence, physical presence and stage presence. “Sometimes, I miss Lee Brilleaux” Johnson says of his Dr.Feelgood bandmate. I saw him play at Glasgow a few weeks ago, encompassing vigour and charisma, agile with fingers, jocular in voice, a fine stand alongside opener Hugh Cornwell. His reputation as one of the best British guitarists of his generation is justified, both on record and in concert. Best known as guitarist and chief songwriter for Dr.Feelgood, Johnson’s choppy guitar playing has similarly graced the works of The Stranglers, The Blockheads and Johnny Thunders. His is a guitar style of rhythm/lead freneticism, a staccato playing fresh with energy, dynamism, speed, virility and frisson. So you could sum up my style as a guy who tried to copy Mick Green but never quite succeeded ” “I heard Mick Green, with Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, I tried to copy Mick Green, I wanted to sound like that. “My guitar style, has been there since the very beginning” Wilko Johnson states. I think they wanted another Roger album, but Roger is a very busy man, so I said I’d do my own”. So, I was resting, and getting back into things, when the record company suggested another album. “While I was at Addenbrooke’s Hospital recuperating, when I should have been dead, the Roger (Daltrey) album was doing very well. ❉ Legendary former Dr Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson returns with ‘Blow Your Mind’, his first album of new material in 30 years.

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