Biography

W. Johnson started playing his dad’s guitar at the age of 9.

Three years later he got a copy of the Eliminator LP by ZZ Top.

From then on he started digging in the archives of guitar music (especially blues), meanwhile improving himself on the instrument.

Between 1991 and 1994 he formed a couple of local bands where he would occasionally sing besides playin’ the guitars.

By the end of 1995 he joined Big Mouse and the Bluesfactory, a band who used to cover all kinds of blues from John Lee Hooker and BB King to Gary Moore, Van Morrison and The Blues Brothers. W. Johnson left the Bluesfactory by December 1997 and decided to take a short break. In April 1998 he started working on his own project.

For two years he wrote songs and practiced the combination singing/guitar-playing.  Two songs written in this period and still remaining in the Bacon Fat live set today are “Hangin’ around” and ‘Louisa’.  

W. Johnson became influenced with a wide range of musical genres which he would mix into his music. The roots are to be found in the likes of Robert Johnson, Bo Diddley, Jimi Hendrix, Alvin Lee and Billy F. Gibbons. Later on Andre Williams became a huge influence.

Even rock ‘n roll icons like Lemmy and Dimebag Darrell leave an unmistakably mark in his guitar-playing. On the other hand artists like Chris Goss, Daevid Allen, Gordie Johnson, Miles Davis and Mike Patton convinced W. that music should be explored as far as possible.

With such an extensive background one can imagine that the music of Bacon Fat exceeds the borders of traditional blues-rock and guides the listener throughout an unusual and often unexpected blues-universe.

However, that’s not important as Johnson explains: “Blues is not a definition of sound and structure, it is the feeling you play it with!”

 

Gear

• Fender, Marshall
• Gibson, Hägstrom, Erlewine
• Bixonic, Digitech, Dunlop, Danelectro, Boss, GOGO