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
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.
The first time I went to New York, I met Alan Freed.
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.
It was a trio - Eddie Rubin was playing drums, Joe Osborn on bass. And that's when we got approached on the idea of the Whisky A Go-Go.
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.