BY GRACE MCQUADE
“It never rains in your town… but it pours down in mine” is the refrain in the song “Never Rains” by British blues and rock musician Will Johns from his second album, “Hooks and Lines” (2013).
While the lyrics can take on several meanings, for Johns they harken back to the move he made with his mother as a young boy from sunny Los Angeles to soggy England after his parents’ divorce.
The son of legendary music recording engineer Andy Johns, and model and actress Paula Boyd, Johns spent his childhood going back and forth between these two different landscapes and lives.
While staying with his father, he grew up alongside rock star royalty, as the older Johns helped build the careers of artists like Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, and Eric Clapton.
His uncle, his father’s brother Glyn Johns, was also a well-known music producer who represented The Who, the Eagles, Bob Dylan, and many other budding performers during the 1960s and ‘70s.
Although life with his mother was a bit more “normal,” if there is such a thing, Boyd’s side of the family kept young Johns close to his music roots.
Paula Boyd’s sister, Pattie Boyd, was married to George Harrison during the Beatles’ heyday, and later married Eric Clapton, giving Will Johns two more rock icon uncles.
Perhaps being born with this silver “spoonful” is what led Johns to start playing music at a young age and recently hear from Kofi Baker and Malcolm Bruce about joining their Music of Cream: 50th Anniversary World Tour.
The North American tour kicked off on Sept. 28, with 38 scheduled concerts in the U.S. and Canada, including a stop at The Paramount in Huntington on Wednesday, Oct. 17 at 8 p.m.
“It’s some pretty big shoes to fill,” Johns said by phone while taking a break from rehearsal to talk about how the trio came together, what fans can expect at the concert, and his own music path.
For those who missed the late ‘60s, Cream broke music ground with their psychedelic, improvisational style that influenced groups like Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, and guitarist Jimi Hendrix.
Comprised of drummer Ginger Baker, the late bassist and vocalist Jack Bruce, and Clapton on guitar and vocals, the band released just four albums during their three short years together, but their legacy lives on — not only given their impact on rock music then and now, with classic songs such as “Strange Brew,” “Badge,” and “White Room,” but also through the next generation of musicians in their families.
The Baker and Bruce sons, along with Clapton’s nephew Johns, are now marking the 50 years since the original lineup’s farewell U.S. tour of 1968 with their own concert tour that promises to be a sweet salute.
Johns was actually working on a charter fishing boat on the English Channel when he heard from Malcolm Bruce out of the blue a few years ago.
“I used to play in a band with Malcolm’s brother, who sadly is no longer with us. His name was Joe Bruce,” Johns said. “This is going back years ago… when I was about 18, 19… when I first met Malcolm. And then just after my father died (in 2013), the phone rang and it was Malcolm to say, ‘Hi Will, I’m playing with Kofi and we’re coming to England.’”
Baker and Bruce were on their Sons of Cream tour, and they asked Johns if he wanted to come to one of their concerts and jam with them.
“Of course I was completely flattered and a little bit scared,” Johns recalls. “We played one show in London and things kind of built from there.”
The threesome’s musical chemistry paved the way for the current anniversary tour that launched in Australia and New Zealand.
“The audiences there were just so lovely and enthusiastic,” Johns said. “The show was pretty loose, but they didn’t seem to mind… What we do is like Cream, a lot of improvisation, and jamming, and bouncing off each other musically… and that just makes for exciting stuff.”
And from what Johns witnessed, the tour is creating a new generation of Cream fans.
“There were quite a lot of kids showing up with their parents and grandparents. That was great to see because… most kids, if they pick up guitar, ‘Sunshine of Your Love’ is a standard to learn,” Johns said. “Although they may not have heard of Cream necessarily, a tune like that stands out.”
Picture: David Geraghty / The Australian.
Now that the tour has made its way to America, Johns said audiences here “can expect a little bit of everything.”
“We’re going to cover quite a lot of the material… the well-known songs and quite a few of the maybe lesser-known songs, and then within that there are great jams, great opportunities for us to stretch out on the music and improvise together.”
Described as a multimedia experience, Johns said, “Thanks to modern technology, we’re able to use a vibrant mix of both old lighting styles you might have seen in the ‘60s… the oil lamps and psychedelic lights back then, together with modern lighting effects.”
The show will also feature photographs and video footage — both personal and from Cream concerts in the past — on screen, which Johns says marries nicely with their music performances on stage.
And he promises there will be plenty of stories from their wild upbringings, adding icing on the cake.
When asked what Cream song he likes to perform, Johns replied, “I have to probably say ‘Crossroads.’ That was something when I first started out on guitar that Eric showed me the opening riff to.”
And by Eric, he means Clapton, who he remembers visiting in London as a child.
“Auntie Pattie and Uncle Eric… they definitely made a huge impression on me, and I always knew that I wanted to be in the creative world, perhaps in the music world.”
Given his music pedigree, playing the guitar and singing came naturally to Johns.
“From a very early age… I was always in recording studios and so that presence of creativity, music and even the smells of musical equipment and electricity inside the studios… it’s a very particular smell that has always been home for me.”
Johns picked up an old, beat-up guitar at the age of 15. “Then my dad Andy… he bought me my first real guitar, which was a 1957 vintage Fender Stratocaster in surf green.”
Johns said he started to teach himself to play along to the music his mother liked, “tapes she had like Tina Turner, the ‘Private Dancer’ album, a lot of Fleetwood Mac… all of that good stuff,” he said.
“That’s how I started,” Johns went on to say, “and then at some point Eric showed me the first part of ‘Crossroads.’”
Once Johns learned the opening, he asked his uncle to show him the next part of the song.
“He, quite rightly, didn’t show me the next part,” Johns said. “He said to me, ‘Well, you have to figure that out yourself,’ and so that set a precedent of having to make an effort to learn it myself. That was the start of my road, my musical journey, and it’s (been) quite an amazing trip.”
Johns went on to study performing arts at Oxford, where he played in his first band called Cloud 9, and then performed for 15 years with his own Will Johns Band, releasing three award-winning albums in the U.K., with songs that he says are all inspired by the people and experiences in his life.
During that time, Johns also performed with many acclaimed musicians, including Jack Bruce.
“That was probably one of the most amazing musical experiences of my life,” he says. “It was at Jack’s house on one of his birthdays… and Jack actually called me up on stage saying, ‘Come on, Will.’ I can’t tell you what we played together… but what I do remember (was) his amazing bass playing, which is such a beautiful platform in which to interact musically with guitar.”
Now Johns gets to play with Jack’s son Malcolm and Ginger’s son Kofi, who he says are like brothers, as the three musicians take on their inherited roles — Baker on drums, Bruce on bass, and Johns on guitar.
“We all bring our very particular and different elements to the mix,” Johns says, in a concert meant to honor Cream. “That’s really what makes it work… and what makes it special as well.”
Since Johns now appears to be “sitting on top of the world,” what about his fishing gig?
“My job was getting up at six in the morning to help people catch fish. Now I get to play music for people all around the world and go fishing to relax,” he says.
For more information about Johns, visit www.willjohns.com.
To purchase tickets to the show, go to www.paramountny.com.
