Eric Johnson

One of the most outstanding instrumentalists in rock over the past 40 years, Texas guitarist Eric Johnson was already a legend before he recorded his first album.

By the early 1980s, many celebrated guitarists were singing the praises of this skinny kid from Austin with the mind-melting chops. With the release of his highly-anticipated 1986 solo debut album Tones, the underground guitar legend finally emerged onto the scene fully-formed. It landed him on the cover of Guitar Player magazine, which hailed the album as a “majestic debut”, and earned him his first Grammy nomination for the song “Zap”. With the release of his follow up album, 1990’s platinum-selling Ah Via Musicom, Eric Johnson became a bona fide international guitar phenomenon.

Since 1986 Eric has released seventeen albums, in addition to albums with other artists such as Eclectic with jazz guitarist Mike Stern, and the platinum-selling G3 Live with Joe Satriani and Steve Vai. Eric has received eight Grammy nominations along with numerous other recognitions, awards and wins in various polls and magazines. Among Johnson’s many accolades are a GRAMMY award in 1992 for “Cliffs of Dover” as Best Rock Instrumental Performance, lifetime induction into the Guitar Player Gallery of Greats, and his listing among the “100 Greatest Guitarists of the 20th Century” by Musician magazine. 

Over the course of more than four decades, Eric Johnson has been traveling on a prolific odyssey. Along the way, his creations have cross-pollinated the various musical genres which include rock, blues, jazz, fusion, soul, folk, new-age, classical, and even country. Inevitably EJ says it best himself in sharing that regardless of the genre “It really boils down to the music and the song at the end of the day”, he explains. 

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