JW: I didn’t know how much it was hurting me until I got off of it.
He got off drinking and stopped smoking cigarettes. It wasn’t just me taking him off the methadone. PN: Yeah, because you’re human, you have input, there’s emotion. JW: He’s never made one mistake the whole time he’s been managing me. His addiction to music has made him the greatest guitar player, and made him see that if anything messes with his music, he’ll stop it. He’s communicating again with people, which he wasn’t doing through the ’90s when he was on all that stuff. PN: His addiction to music was stronger than any drug. I didn’t think there was any possible way. I knew if his mind knew what was going on, he would refuse it. PN: I saw it taking its toll and I knew how headstrong he was. Paul Nelson: I was shaving off his methadone. JW: It wasn’t hard at all because Paul didn’t tell me he was doing it (laughs!) He is responsible for redirecting Winter’s career, but more importantly, he was successful in helping Winter kick a 40-year dependence on methadone. Nelson has recorded and performed with some of the biggest names in the music industry ,and brings a wealth of savvy to the table.
Nelson then became Winter’s touring guitarist and, eventually, his manager. While working on his Grammy-nominated I’m A Bluesman album, he met guitarist Paul Nelson, who contributed material to the album and played guitar. For years, he lived in a fog of drugs and deceit, and paid dearly for it. The result was the best selling albums Hard Again, I’m Ready, and King Bee, the financial high point of Waters’ career.ĭespite his success, Winter wrestled with drug and alcohol addiction and unscrupulous management. His devotion to the blues led him to produce his childhood idol Muddy Waters. His wicked slide playing and Texas sizzle influenced a generation of guitarists and made him arguably the best white blues guitarist of his generation. Reps from Columbia were in attendance, and Winter was signed to the biggest advance in the history of the recording industry. King’s “It’s My Own Fault” and blew away the audience. In December, 1968, Mike Bloomfield asked Johnny Winter to perform at the Fillmore East in New York at a Super Session jam with Al Kooper.
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