I’ve meet Eric Johnson a few times over the years. That’s one of the great things about living in this town, if you like local musicians and see them play enough, you’ll eventually run into them somewhere.
I’ve been a huge fan of Eric’s since moving to Austin in 1985 to start my freshman year at The University of Texas. One of the first things I did after moving to town was to make up for lost time and lost concerts. I attended as many concerts and music events as I could. My friends and I had discovered Eric Johnson and his record, Tones had just come out. We loved it and would see Eric whenever we could including the show he played on the Tones tour at the Austin Opera House. Eric’s band at the time included, Reggie Witty on bass and Tommy Taylor on drums.
Eric blew us away and we spent the next 4 years, virtually my entire college life, waiting for the next Eric Johnson record. These were the days before the internet so there was no reading up on what was going on, all we had heard was there was some legal, contract, dispute/mumbo jumbo going on and Eric was unable to put out a new record. We would literally go to the record store, a few times per month, and head straight to the “J’s ” hoping to see a new record…it never happened. We did that for four years.
Anyway, I graduated from UT in the summer of 1989 and moved back to my hometown of McAllen, Texas and went to work in the family business. My best friend, Avrel, had also moved back home and we decided to fire up the band again. We started playing around town as a trio, doing cover material etc. Little did we know that Eric had recorded his 3rd record, Ah Via Musicom, that same summer, and it was to be released in February of 1990.
You’ve never seen two guys more excited about a record release…we’d been waiting 5 years for it…so, even though the record had come out in February, we didn’t know about it until a month or so later, we lived in McAllen and had given up on any new Eric Johnson records. We eventually figured out he had a new record which we bought and absorbed it day in and day out for the first few weeks…our band, a trio called The Plan, was playing the entire record as soon, and as best, as we could. Keep in mind, Eric’s music was largely instrumental, guitar music, which was a tall order for the listening ears of McAllen, Texas. We received more than a few cross looks while playing those songs…we didn’t care, we were playing them for ourselves. The music was super challenging but very fun to play.
Avrel and I had decided to take a road trip to Austin to get some new equipment for our band. We were both going to finally purchase some bigger/better amps and Avrel was going to buy a new guitar as well and we were going take this whole band thing to the next level. We hit the road on March 23rd, 1990, a day we still celebrate to this day as “Eric Day”!
Avrel was going stay with our good pal, Ed, and I was staying with my girlfriend, Carla, at the time who was still in Austin finishing up school. We hit the road and listened to “Ah Via Musicom” over and over for 300 or so miles, all the way to Austin. As we were driving into town, we heard that Eric was actually going to be playing at the KLBJ radio station on a show called “Local Licks Live” in the studio that night, taping a live radio show.
I’m not sure why we thought this would be a good idea but we decided to just drive up to the radio station and see if we could meet Eric. Could be possible, right? We listened to the show in the car while heading up the road to the KLBJ studio at about 10pm. Our friends thought we were crazy, but we just went ahead and did it. It was myself, Carla, and Avrel.
We pulled into the KLBJ parking lot probably 30 or so minutes after the show had aired and sure enough, the first person we see has a guitar on his back, walking to his car, and it’s none other than Eric Johnson himself. We couldn’t help but scream and laugh at our good fortune. Nobody else was there…just us 3, Eric and his girlfriend.
We jumped out of the car…I didn’t have anything for him to sign but a piece of plain white copy paper. Avrel had his new red strat in the car that he had just purchased that afternoon and we walked over to Eric, and introduced ourselves. I introduced my girlfriend, Carla, to Eric and he politely returned the courtesy and introduced his girlfriend, I think her name was Stephanie, to us. Hilarious!
He then signed my piece of copy paper and the back of Avrel’s guitar and we chatted for minute. I recall him saying that he was hungry and was heading to The Brick Oven to get some pizza. Was he asking us to tag along? I don’t think so, but he probably would have let us.
Anyway, we made it back to see our friends place who I’m sure were thinking what fools we were for trying to meet Eric, and we walk in the room with autographs in hand and a hell of story to tell for the rest of our lives. So, Mar 23 will always be Eric day for Avrel and I.
There was another time, many, many, years later, when Eric, and Chris Layton, and Scott Nelson, were doing a Jimi Hendrix tribute show at Antone’s…this was probably in 2009 or so. All of my Eric buds decided to go check it out and as we’re standing in line to get in, Eric pulls up right next to us in his car, hands the keys to a valet, grabs his guitar from the back seat, says hello, shakes our hands and walks into the side door at Antone’s.
We just happened to be at the right place at the right time…that was cool enough but before the show starts I head into the men’s room, after a few beers, and when I walk in there, there are 3 guys standing around in a circle whispering giving themselves a pep talk. When they noticed the door opened, they all looked up and it’s Eric, Chris, and Scott all looking at me, just us 4 in the men’s room. I said something like, “wow, the whole band is in here” and just walked up to the urinal. lol…it was kind of hard to tinkle with 3 of my musical idols standing right behind me….they headed to the stage and put on a great show of course. It was the perfect evening!