The story of the blues and rock guitarist Johnny Winter, who has died suddenly aged 70, was both a cautionary tale and a lesson in how to stay true to your own instincts. A precocious natural talent from Texas, Winter was signed by Columbia Records in 1969 for $600,000, then an unprecedented sum for a solo artist. He released his first Columbia album in April 1969, and in August that year he appeared in the midst of the rock'n'roll aristocracy at the Woodstock festival.
But Winter became disillusioned by the way his record company wanted him to be another spectacular rock star like Jimi Hendrix or a supergroup such as Cream, when what he really wanted to do was "play real raw country blues in my own style, and that wasn't what people were expecting," as he put it. "I loved Jimi and I loved Cream, but I wasn't trying to compete."
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