Before Eric Johnson became the solo instrumental electric guitar virtuoso he is today, he started his career cutting his teeth on the session circuit, working with the likes of Christopher Cross, Carole King and Cat Stevens.
However, despite achieving considerable success as a gun-for-hire guitarist, Johnson’s session career wasn’t immune to the odd disaster – nor was it absent of a particularly harsh sacking.
Speaking in a new interview with Guitar World, Johnson looks back on his oft-underappreciated session days, and recalls a disaster encounter that took place while working with an anonymous country singer.
“He was a pretty famous guy,” he says of the star. “But the piano player had played almost every fill in-between the vocals. Like, he was doing a thing between every vocal, you know?
“So, the producer wanted me to put something in there besides chords, but I couldn’t find any room to put anything in there or play it. It basically would have... [meant learning] every single lick that the piano player did, so that I could either harmonize, or double it, or come up with a continual part.”
Unfortunately, as was often the case back in the days when time was very much money in the studio, Johnson says that with the clock ticking, he struggled to adapt.
That may seem somewhat implausible today, given Johnson’s reputation, but nevertheless, the guitar great tells GW it wasn’t long before he was given his marching orders.
“It was taking me forever,” he summarises. “And I just got fired from the session because I couldn’t get it.”
It wasn't the only time that the studio’s on-the-spot nature caught Johnson cold. During a separate experience, the Cliffs of Dover virtuoso found himself struggling to deliver for Steely Dan’s lead singer.
“I was working on a session for Donald Fagan, and that didn’t work out too well, either,” he adds. “Not because of him, he was just looking for a certain thing, and I don’t think that I came up with it immediately.
“Like, sometimes, I guess you want to go with that first impulse. But I guess the first thing that I came up with wasn’t good enough. So, those two things were learning experiences, or some examples of times that it just didn’t work out.”
Johnson says his pain proved formative, but it’s also a nice lesson for the rest of us to keep in mind the next time we fall short – even Eric Johnson has off-nights.
Eric Johnson’s full interview with Guitar World – in which he discusses his session days – and how he ended up working with Christopher Cross after Ritchie Blackmore got food poisoning – will be published in the coming weeks.
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