Johnnie Johnson

Early rock pioneer Johnnie Johnwon was born in West Virginia in 1924. He taught himself to play piano as a youth. When World War II broke out he moved to Detroit, Michigan, to get a job in the defense plants there. In 1943 he joined the US Marines and played in a Marine "big and" that toured and performed in the Pacific theater. When the war ended he moved to Chicago, and started hanging out in the city's famed blues scene, eventually becoming acquainted with such blues legends as Muddy Waters and Little Milton and even playing with them at times. He then moved to St. Louis, MO, and worked with Albert King. He soon started his own band, the Johnnie Johnson Trio, which played mostly jazz and R&B instead of blues. In 1952 Johnson hired a relatively unknown country/western singer named Chuck Berry to play a New Year's Eve party with the trio. They hit it off almost immediately and collaborated for the next 30 years on some of the most famous rock songs of all time. Johnson would compose t