By Bob Ross - Time Music Writer
You're a subculture's super-star. You are recognized instontly wherever you go. In a week, you will begin performing before several thousand raving admirers almost every night. What's it like? "It's loneliness: it's boredom. It's being treated like a jukebox instead of a human being," replies the relaxed nice, explaining why he, rock and roll star Johnny Winter, will not stay on tour for more than five or six weeks at a time. "PEOPLE SEEM TO forget we're people, too. They tend to make unreasonable demands," he says. "Even we (the stars) have to eat in restaurants and run to catch planes from time to time." The lanky white-haired musician is bringing his high-powered road show to St. Petersburg's Bayfront Center Arena Sunday.
We'll be fresh then for sure, 'cause the tour starts March 1 in Jacksonville," promises Winter by telephone from New York. "Besides, nowadays our tours are better organized." Nowadays? "Oh, man, it used to be open house. Like a 24-hour party, huge crowds backstage — I tried to accommodate everybody, and just drained myself." Winter openly discusses his once-mysterious withdrawal from the music scene about three years ago, when he vanished for two years from public view amidst rumors and controversy. "I DIDN'T KNOW what I wanted to do. Business, all the crates, the hassles were just too much. I wondered if I should play guitar, drop out, drive a truck somewhere, or What. "It took me a year to get myself together and Another year to get the right music-and musicians assembled.
Columbia (holder of Winter's recording contract) was very gond In me those years. They didn't pressure me, even though my contract requires two albums a year. I could have lost it all then, but they just waited 'til I said 'I'm ready,' and now things are much better all around." In his early days. Winter played some impressive country blues guitar. Now his repertoire Is entirely hard rock. Why doesn't Winter do a brief acoustic hit? "I'd like to — wish I could." asserts Winter in mellow tones that belief the earthy power of his singing voice. "But again, at a big concert, there are just too many fans who holler for what they paid to hear. You really have to play louder than they can yell."
This last comment came with a laugh. Johnny Winter does not mind playing loud music. He has the style and energy of a classic rocker and the talent to make any tune he chooses sound new and hot regardless of vintage. "I do miss playing small clubs, though," mused Winter, who is well-known for sitting to at after-hours jam sessions as the travels. "That's where I can just play what I want to, fool around and listen." Like most performers, Winter craves the small creative sessions that ultimately lead to improvements in his stage show. Winter is one of the few artists who can re-create — and often improve — tunes by such immortals as Chuck Berry and the Rolling Stones.
His comment on the subject is refreshingly honest: "If I could write songs that good myself. I'd do them." What he doesn't say is that his interpretations add 1970s crispness and power to great rock 'n' roll that otherwise would be less attractive to his ever-younger audience. "Yes, the crowds are younger all the Una" observes Winter. "Its true" Winter enjoys a unique business advantage, Malts to the fact that his brother Edgar is also a successful working rocker. "We share the same managers, roadies (equipment handlers) — everything except the musicians is the same.
When Edgar's on tour I'm home, and vice versa. We're able to split a lot of expenses for equipment and salaries that way. Will the fuel situation affect cross-country touring? "Not this time," says Winter. "We've get a plane leased already and a good road manager." Although he seems to be most happy at home — in New York and Connecticut with friends and neighbors —Johnny Winter obviously enjoys his five-week stints as "public property," as he puts it. "I like to stay busy anyway; But touring is really rough after awhile," he says. Don his playing suffer from the grind? "No. I'm playing better than ever, I think."
