Johnny Rivers
Johnny Rivers
Johnny Riversis an Italian-American rock 'n' roll singer, songwriter, legendary guitarist, and record producer. His repertoire includes pop, folk, blues, and old-time rock 'n' roll. Rivers charted during the 1960s and 1970s but remains best known for a string of hit singles between 1964 and 1968, among them "Memphis", "Mountain of Love", "The Seventh Son", "Secret Agent Man", "Poor Side of Town", "Baby I Need Your Lovin'", and "Summer Rain"...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMusician
Date of Birth7 November 1942
CountryUnited States of America
When I came back to California in the early '60s I was hanging out with Jimmy Bowen, Phil Spector, and I wanted to be a record producer and work with other artists.
About two months into the Whisky, I borrowed some money and rented a remote recording truck.
James was back there on a vacation, ... He was one of my favorite guitar players. I had written this song ('I'll Make Believe') that everyone said sounded like a good song for Ricky Nelson. I gave it to James. He took it back to Los Angeles and then called me and said, 'Hey, that song you gave me, I played it for Ricky and he likes it. He's gonna record it.' I went, 'Wow.' That was a big deal at the time because Elvis was in the Army and Ricky was the top guy.
After that initial success, every chance we got we'd hire that remote recording truck and just record stuff at the Whisky because it was so inexpensive.
Performing live, that's the ultimate thing. That's where it starts and that's where it ends. It's all about playing music.
I think my favorite album was probably Realization.
I got to see all these incredible blues players, like Jimmy Reed.
I didn't get to talk to him, I just kept looking at him. Elvis had all this greasy hair and pimples on his face; he played a mean guitar and sang like no one else. I thought he was the coolest guy I'd ever seen. I wanted to be just like him.
One of the first groups we signed was the Fifth Dimension.
My first really good guitar was a Gibson J-45.
One thing will lead to another and somebody will come up with a riff or a line or something we build from.
We were the hot young band around there, ... I still have newspaper articles and stuff like that.
Even Woodstock turned out to be a disaster. Everybody was stuck in the mud and people got sick.
I've got a Fender Concert amp from the '60s, the one Joe Osborn used. He played his bass through it.