Blues guitarist Johnny Winter dies at 70.
Johnny Winter, a Texas-bred guitarist and singer who was a mainstay of the blues-rock world since the 1960s, died on Wednesday in his hotel room in Zurich. He was 70 and had been on tour in Europe.
He was one of the world's finest guitarists," his rep. Lori Haynes, said. Winter was in Zurich, Switzerland, as part of a tour of Europe, although he was scheduled to return to the United States for shows later in July.
Winter first gained national attention when Rolling Stone magazine featured the the Texas music scene in a December 1968 cover story. It captioned his photo: "Johnny Winter, Albino Bluesman." The article said guitarist Mike Bloomfield considered the young Winter the "best white blues guitarist he had ever heard."
Rolling Stone now ranks Winter 63rd on its list of 100 greatest guitarists. Winter announced this year that he had another album ready for release in September. "Step Back" will include contributions from guests including Eric Clapton, Joe Perry and Dr. John, according to his official website.
His summer tour schedule was filled with shows, including 15 concerts planned across the United States in August.
Winter was asked in the documentary if he every dreamed that playing a guitar would take him around the world.
"I was almost always sure it would," Winter said. "I was sure I was going to be successful."It's the only thing that I've really been good at."
Winter opened up about his heroin, prescription pill and alcohol addictions that derailed his career in the 1980s and 1990s in an authorized biography "Raisin' Cain - The Wild and Raucous Story of Johnny Winter," published in 2010.
His resurgence began after he fired a longtime manager in 2005 and hired fellow musician Paul Nelson to guide his career.
"I think that Johnny now is really coming back to being himself," brother Edgar Winter said in the just-released documentary.
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