JOHNNY GUITAR WATSON DIES DURING THE JAPAN TOUR

Johnny Guitar Watson, a Houston-born guitarist and singer known for his wild style of guitar playing and the sound which merged blues music with touches of R&B and funk, died of cardiac infarction on May 17, 1996 in Yokohama during his recent tour of Japan. He was 61. He had arrived in Japan on May 11 for the Japan Blues Carnival event, and had already finished dates in Osaka, Kyoto and Nagoya. After this tragic night, he was originally scheduled to perform on May 18 and 19 in Tokyo and return to U.S. the following day. His original schedule also included Sapporo on the 16th, but he canceled it due to the tiredness coming from the tight schedule.

The show was held at the Ocean Boulevard Blues Cafe in Yokohama that night. Right after he came on the stage and sang the first verse of the first song, "Superman Lover", he made a gesture like pushing the microphone stand towards the audience with his hand on his chest and fell down on his back. The time was around 19:40. Many of the audiences couldn't understand what had happened, and many thought it was some kind of stage performance. After a while, an ambulance was called by the promoter. Approximately 10 minutes later he was taken into a hospital near by but his heart had already stopped when he was examined. The heart massages were given to Watson, but it was too late to bring him back to life. He was officially pronounced dead at 21:16 the same night. Rumor has it that Watson was suffering from a heart disease for some time and he was carrying glycerin with him for his disease.

Many who caught the shows before Yokohama say that he was powerful putting on a great show, and there were no signs whatsoever of this kind of accident would happen to him in the near future.

Toshinari Yoshida, the Chief Producer of the Ocean Boulevard Blues Cafe, said that Johnny Guitar had been one of his all-time favorites, and it had been his dream to bring him to the club. He said he was saddened for what happened.

On the Sat., 18th and Sun., 19th at the Hibiya Yagai Ongakudo, Tokyo where Watson was originally scheduled to appear, there were repeated announcements and postings about the accident at the gate. There were many who heard the news for the first time there, and they looked quite shocked to find out about it.

On Saturday, Ukadan and James Cotton were other performers who were scheduled to appear. Ukadan showed their feelings for Watson by changing a part of the lyrics in their early classic "Chicago Bound" singing "Old man Johnny died and now I have nothing better to do but to drink". The crowd seemed to be much quieter compared to how it had been in the previous years.

On Sunday, the members of Watson's band appeared on the stage between the shows and expressed their feeling for him. One of them said, "Johnny once said that if he were to die, he wanted to die on stage", and the crowd responded with an applause. The appearance of the band members gave the audience a touching moment, but it made many sad again making them realize once again that he was really gone.

The staff at Blues Ginza would like to express our sincere condolences for Johnny. He was great, and we will miss him very much.

NOTE (3/6/97):
Today, I received an e-mail from Ms. Susan Maier Watson, Johnny Guitar Watson's wife appreciating this article. However, she has pointed out that the rumor I mentioned about Johnny's previous heart problems weren't true, and he wasn't carrying any medications for that. I had picked up that information from a post from one of the newsgroups on the net, and at the time of writing, I had no proof to believe that was true, that was why I mentioned that it was a "rumor". Nonetheless, I have to admit that making this information to public was misleading, and I would like to correct it and apologize for now. I hope Ms. Watson and the readers of Blues Ginza would understand.
Masahiro Sumori