04/29/2026
As we found out after his 1986 debut "Tones" displayed his dizzying guitar virtuosity alongside some capable songwriting ("Friends", "Off My Mind", "Trail of Tears", "Zap") and an airy voice, patience is mandatory to be an Eric Johnson fan. Taking four years before any follow up escaped the recording studio, phenomenally gifted Texas guitarist Eric Johnson's career arc resembles not so much a rainbow but rather an EKG.
Johnson played lead guitar in the Austin blink-and-you-miss'em band The Electromagnets, then spent the first half of the Eighties packing five hundred to three thousand seaters with adoring musicians (including Jeff "Skunk" Baxter & Steve Morse) from coast to coast, while appearing simultaneously in a feature of Guitar Player magazine... all without a record deal.
Eric Johnson joins me here In the Studio to recall the debut "Tones" forty years ago; the "Ah Via Musicom" experience; plus some illuminating revelations from the normally shy, humble Texan. https://www.inthestudio.net/online-only-interviews/eric-johnson-ah-via-musicom/