Sometimes, like Axl Rose, all you need is a little patience.

Eric Johnson grew up in a musical family in Texas and began playing the guitar at age 11. It was the mid-60’s, the dawning of the age of the guitar hero, so young master Johnson had plenty of six-string gods to emulate in rock, jazz, and country, and he made sure to listen to everything. Over the course of the next 15 years, he joined or started a number of bands who drew positive attention in his home state, but nothing translated into big time success.

Unable to make musical ends meet, Johnson moved to LA in 1979 and became a session guitarist for hire, working on albums by Christopher Cross and Carole King and quickly developing a reputation as a guitarist with serious talent. Reprise Records signed him up in the mid-80’s, and a track from his debut album was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental (although it lost out to a collaboration between synth-poppers Art Of Noise and Duane Eddy, the original godfather of rock guitar instrumentals). Alas, his album did not sell to the general public and Reprise dropped him from the label.

But all was not lost. As The Grateful Dead once sang, “One man gathers what another man spills,” and Capitol signed up Johnson to a multi-album deal. The music gods would reward them.

Johnson’s second album, Ah Via Musicom, released in 1990, contained a song he’d had in his back pocket since the early 80’s, called “Cliffs Of Dover.” Maybe he didn’t think the song was ready before this time. Maybe he’d tried recording it earlier but felt he didn’t do it justice. Whatever the case, when Johnson finally unleashed “Cliffs Of Dover” as a single in 1991, people pricked up their ears and paid attention — critics, consumers, guitar magazines, everyone. It proved to be his highest charting, best-selling, and most influential song, pushing the album into Platinum territory, and this time winning the Grammy for best Rock Instrumental.

It took about 20 years, but Johnson could finally count himself among the guitar greats he grew up with.

So … … with Eric Johnson