Young Blues Musicians Edgar and Johnny Winter
Uncredited and Undated Photograph
“The black club in Beaumont, Texas where we grew up was The Raven, and that’s where we’d go see B.B. King and Bobby Blue Bland, Ray Charles and all those people that would come in. The black radio station was KJET, and that was like right down the street from my grandmother’s house. Every Thursday we’d go over to my grandmother’s house for fried chicken, and we’d walk down to KJET. We’d go over there and play on the radio sometimes ’cause the deejay would play some records. Then, he’d pick up his guitar and he’d sing a few songs. We’d go in here and that was always a lot of fun.
“There was a dance club called the Tahiti that we used to play. It was a white club, and occasionally they had this black band that would play there called Big Sambo and the House Breakers. I was there one night. I wanted to sit in with them, and the club owner said, ‘No, you can’t. That’s not acceptable. We can’t.’ I said, ‘What? You got a black band playing for white people, but a white guy can’t sit in with the black band? Why?’
“The whole thing made absolutely no sense to me, and then I also remember one of the bands I had – I had a lot of black friends, and we decided to hire a black singer. His name was Junior Coal, and he used to play a lot of church things, and after I hired this guy, they quit asking him to play.”
Edgar Winter
“(B.B. Kng) wasn’t sure if I could play or not and didn’t want to take any risks. First, he asked to see my union card. When I showed it to him, he was surprised I had one. I begged him, ‘Please, Mr. King, let me sit in; I know your songs,’ and eventually, he let me play. I got to strum his guitar, Lucille, and I played ‘Goin’ Down Slow’—just that one song. He said he’d let me play a few more, but really, it was just that one before he took his guitar back. It was a blast! He had a full band with three horns, drums, bass, guitar, and an organ; it was my first time jamming with such a big group. I even got a standing ovation, which caught him off guard. He told me, ‘I’ll see you down the line; you were fantastic.’ That really boosted my spirits. Having a legendary bluesman I looked up to give me that kind of encouragement meant the world to me. I always dreamed of being famous, and that moment made me feel like I could actually do it and that people would appreciate my music.
Later, I found out B.B. was a bit worried we were from the IRS, thinking we were there to check on his taxes. We were all wearing black trench coats because it was chilly and miserable outside, and back then, most white folks didn’t just hang out at black clubs unless they had a reason. I didn’t realise he felt that way until I heard him mention it in an interview later on.”
Johnny Winter, on meeting and playing with B.B. King for the first time, when he was 17-years old, in 1962, at the Black nightclub “The Raven” in segregated Beaumont, Texas, where Winter grew up.
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