Johnny Guitar Watson

One of the most highly regarded R&B guitarists of the 1960s, Johnny 'Guitar' Watson went on to define funk's swaggering groove and embrace the disco craze of the 1970s. A naturally flamboyant showman, Watson was inspired by the likes of T-Bone Walker and Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown and started out by performing in juke joints in Los Angeles and on the West Coast in the 1950s. He was renowned in his early days for the sound of his "space guitar", created by using distorted feedback and heavy reverb, but went on to score the R&B hits Those Lonely, Lonely Nights, Cuttin' In and Mercy, Mercy, Mercy. He toured with Johnny Otis and Little Richard, before transforming himself into an outlandishly dressed, soul pimp in the 1970s with his signature song Gangster Of Love and the albums I Don't Want To Be A Lone Ranger (1975), Ain't That A Bitch (1976) and A Real Mother For You (1977). Watson slipped off the radar in the 1980s, but worked regularly with Frank Zappa before making a major comeback with the Grammy Award nominated blues album Bow Wow (1994). He died on stage in Japan in 1996, reportedly collapsing of a heart attack in mid solo and uttering his last words "Ain't that a bitch."