Johnny Winters Summer 1967 My freshman year in High School was in Dallas Tx. I played for the talent show and met a few more musical kids in school from that day. Two brothers ,their friend & I formed a little band and only played “out” 5 nights. The friend knew the Mgr. at the Family Circle Club in town. It was a Big converted warehouse near downtown with a bar at each end. He laughed & said sure we could come play a late afternoon set the next Thursday / Friday from 6-7:30 . The real music started more like 9. We were there for the beer crowd to hear . The first night was crazy fun playing on a REAL raised up stage with lights and a GOOD sound system. Played mostly top 40 soul R&B and the few BLUES tunes I knew from my big brother . We played every song we had 2 1/2 times for sure. A local band was there setting up on the other end while we finished up, so we left to do homework etc. ( a Thursday school night). Friday night we were pumped knowing the stage , rehearsed live the night before , FRIDAY night etc. We tied a couple of extra songs that we almost knew early . After 45 min. a band came in to the other end with drums and cases etc. Long white hair , skinny as heck and talking fast to the other two dudes. We launched into Big Boss Man by Jimmy Reed and I was doing my best to impress while they were just getting inside. ( you only get 1 first impression ) . They stopped and came down to our end to hear the rest of the song. They looked like a REAL BAND . Johnny , Uncle John Turner & Tommy Shannon . We got their attention and didn’t know any more licks than I played in the first 40 seconds. After I’m A Soul Man , Heard it through the Grapevine etc 10 long minutes we quit to run out the door. But , Johnny came over and was amused and surprised at another little white kid playing the Blues . He said hang out and do a fast tune with him when they started. Wow , I was excited , surprised , scared , etc etc. I squeaked out YES and ran to a pay phone to call home & explain my late timing happening and why . They set up and Johnny plugged me into an amp . He was like a lightning fast BLUE guitar god from the Crossroads of the South. I was shocked with his 160 bpm BLUES with or without a slide. I played the rhythm that wouldn’t get me noticed up there till he nodded to me. CRAP now what ? I launched into every blues lick , turn around , effect etc I could think of much to the bands amusement . After the song an approving nod from the group and I headed for the floor level with cord in tow. Watched their first set and was so overwhelmingly blown away I was like in shock .He had forgotten more licks than I would ever know WOW , WOW didn’t know whether to quit or buckle down & start the long journey with an instrument.Took an afternoon job at a downtown music store and met lots of the local musicians needing strings , picks , records etc. A big dude bass played noticed me at work and took me the next day out to Oak Cliff to jam with a guy from the band STORM . Jimmy Vaughn