Guitar Hero Pleased About Johnnie’s Second Career

Now I have a movie. Before I interviewed Keith Richards, I had six years of very important work and interviews with the likes of Eric Clapton, Taylor Hackford, Bob Weir, Bonnie Raitt, and many significant admirers of Johnnie’s work. But I didn’t have my movie until I interviewed Keith Richards yesterday.

It was Keith, as musical director of Hackford’s movie HAIL! HAIL! ROCK ‘N’ ROLL, who asked Chuck Berry about Johnnie’s whereabouts. Johnnie had a standout solo on “Wee Wee Hours” with Eric Clapton in the film and it was the start of a series of events that led Johnnie to fronting his own band, recording with the likes of Richards, Clapton, John Lee Hooker, and The Kentucky Headhunters. And that set the stage for Johnnie’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Richards, who introduced Johnnie at the hall of fame induction, was the catalyst and he repeatedly mentioned how pleased he was about helping Johnnie. “It was a very proud moment of my life to bring Johnnie back to his rightful place. He had a great new second career which is what he deserved. It was time to be the front man again.”There are more great quotes from Richards who is very opinionated about the song-writing controversy between Chuck and Johnnie. “Johnnie got shortchanged by Chuck. Actually it should be Berry/Johnson when it came down to the songs. The songs wouldn’t have fallen into place the way they did without Johnnie. That was always my belief and still is.”Thanks to Keith’s outstanding interview, now I have everything I need for JOHNNIE BE GOOD, As the songwriter says, my dreams are bursting at the seams.

ELECTRIC LADY STUDIOS

It was fitting that the interview took place at Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village. It’s the studio where Richards mixed the HAIL! HAIL! ROCK ‘N’ ROLL movie soundtrack.Electric Lady’s history goes back to 1970 when Jimi Hendrix helped design the studio and where he made some of the most amazing music ever recorded. The list of artists who’ve recorded at Electric Lady is long enough to seem like a rock and roll phone book: David Bowie, John Lennon, The Rolling Stones, Elvis, Stevie Wonder, Beyonce, Curtis Mayfield, Carly Simon, Billy Joel, Peter Frampton, Al Green, and on and on and on. You could feel the history at Electric Lady. Road trip number 22 and what a great road trip it was: two guitar legends Hubert Sumlin and Keith Richards contributed greatly to JOHNNIE BE GOOD. The journey be good…Art Holliday/DirectorJOHNNIE BE GOOD