Eric Johnson (born August 17, 1954) is an American guitarist, vocalist and composer. His 1990 album Ah Via Musicom was certified platinum by the RIAA, and the single "Cliffs of Dover" won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.
Best known for his electric guitar skills, Johnson is also a player of acoustic, lap steel, and resonator guitar, as well as a bassist, pianist, and vocalist. He plays many musical genres, including rock, blues, jazz fusion, soul, folk, new-age, classical, and country. Keyboard called him "one of the most respected guitarists on the planet" in 2006.
Eric Johnson was born on August 17th, 1954 in Austin, Texas. He was born into a musically inclined family. his mom was a pianist and Johnson and his three sisters studied piano, while his father was a whistling enthusiast who loved music. Johnson started learning the guitar at age 11 and rapidly progressed while listening to the musicians who would heavily influence his future style, including Mike Bloomfield, Chet Atkins, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Ric Bailey, Wes Montgomery, Jerry Reed, Bob Dylan, and Django Reinhardt, among others. At the age of 15, he joined his first professional band, Mariani, a psychedelic rock group. In 1970, Johnson and the group recorded a demonstration, which had an extremely limited release. The recording became a prized collector's item years later.
After graduating from high school, Johnson briefly attended the University of Texas at Austin and traveled with his family to Africa. He eventually returned to Austin, and in 1974, joined a local fusion group called Electromagnets. The group toured and recorded regionally, but did not attract attention from major record labels and disbanded in 1977. The strength of Johnson's playing, however, attracted a small cult following to the group's early recordings, and decades later, their two albums were given wide release on compact disc.
Following the Electromagnets' demise, Johnson formed a touring trio, the Eric Johnson Group, with drummer Bill Maddox and bassist Kyle Brock. They played to audiences around Austin. From 1976–1978, Johnson recorded Seven Worlds, his debut album, at Odyssey Studios in Austin. Contract disputes followed, and Seven Worlds was not released until 1998 on Ark21 Records.
Unable to secure a new management contract, Johnson began working as a session guitarist for some well-known acts, including Cat Stevens, Carole King, and Christopher Cross. While a session musician, Johnson continued to perform locally in Austin.
Johnson's career rebounded in 1984 when he was signed to Warner Bros. Records. Christopher Cross and producer David Tickle recommended Johnson to the label. His breakthrough appearance at Austin City Limits on July 31, 1984, was recorded and later released on CD/DVD in 2010. The performance of "Cliffs of Dover" from the concert was distributed in a flexi-disc soundpage in the May 1986 issue of Guitar Player magazine.
In May 1986, Guitar Player magazine ran a cover story about Johnson. The article helped promote the release of Tones and brought Johnson critical praise, as well as elevating his profile in the guitar and music community. The album's track "Zap" was nominated for the 1987 Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance, but as a whole, the album did not sell well, and Warner Bros. let Johnson's contract expire. He signed on with indie label Cinema Records, distributed by Capitol Records.
By the time Johnson released his 1990 Capitol Records debut album, Ah Via Musicom, he was regularly winning awards for his musicianship in the guitar press. During this period, Johnson also drew recognition for the rich, violin-like lead sound he coaxed from his beloved 1954 Fender Stratocaster, which he named Virginia. The album's second track, "Cliffs of Dover", exemplified his unique sound and won Johnson a 1992 Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. Ah Via Musicom was a crossover hit and was certified platinum.
Johnson is an admitted perfectionist, and those traits seemed to work against the Ah Via Musicom follow-up release. Unhappy with his recordings, Johnson mastered, then later scrapped several completed tracks for the new album and delayed its release for three years, on top of the three years he had spent touring in support of Ah Via Musicom. He also had setbacks involving musical growth and personal issues while recording his next album Venus Isle.
Venus Isle was released on September 3, 1996. It was an album with world influences that demonstrated Johnson's growth as a guitarist, songwriter, producer, musical arranger, and vocalist, but the album received mixed reviews and did not match the success of its predecessor. As a result, Johnson was dropped from Capitol Records. He rebounded with a successful tour from October to November 1996 with fellow guitarists Joe Satriani and Steve Vai. Named the "G3" tour, it resulted in a platinum-selling compact disc and DVD titled G3: Live in Concert.
Johnson eventually returned to the recording studio, releasing Souvenir in January 2003 on his own Vortexan Records label. The album, released on the Internet, received nearly 65,000 plays in the first seven weeks after it was made available on mp3.com. Johnson promoted Souvenir with an electric tour in 2003 and an acoustic tour in 2004.
Johnson's album Bloom was released in June 2005, on Vai's Favored Nations label. The album was divided into three sections with different musical styles, intended to showcase Johnson's versatility. His December 1988 Austin City Limits performance was released on both DVD and compact disc on New West Records in November 2005. His instructional guitar DVD, The Art of Guitar (Hal Leonard Corporation), was also released at the end of 2005.
On June 24, 2014, Provogue Records released Europe Live, a retrospective of Johnson's work that features two new compositions. One of the new compositions is entitled "Evinrude Fever" and draws inspiration from water skiing and boating.
In 1991, Johnson contributed guitar for two tracks on Stuart Hamm's album, The Urge.
In 1994, he formed a side project called Alien Love Child and played shows sporadically while recording Venus Isle. The positive fan feedback from the shows made Alien Love Child a permanent gig. A live performance recording, Live and Beyond, was released in 2000 on Steve Vai's Favored Nations label. Alien Love Child featured the vocal prowess of Malford Milligan, an Austin-area musician who fronted the local band Storyville, made up of members of Stevie Ray Vaughan's Double Trouble.
In 1998, Johnson was among the judges in Musician magazine's "Best Unsigned Bands" competition, along with Ani DiFranco, Moby, Art Alexakis of Everclear, Keb' Mo', and Joe Perry of Aerosmith.
In 2003, he contributed a guitar solo on Mike Tramp's solo album, More to Life than This. The solo was featured on the track "The Good, the Sad and the Ugly".