Rick Derringer is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, and producer who first lit the fuse in 1965 with The McCoys and their No.1 hit "Hang On Sloopy." Those were garage-rock days, all nerve and radio static. By 1969–1973 he was riding alongside Johnny Winter, producing and playing on "Johnny Winter And" and later stepping into Edgar Winter’s White Trash (1970–1972) and The Edgar Winter Group (1972–1974), carving out that lean, high-voltage guitar sound. His 1973 solo cut "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo" became a permanent encore. Through the late 1970s and 1980s he produced artists from Weird Al Yankovic to hard rock acts, always chasing clarity, attack, and that flash of danger that makes a speaker cone tremble.

Rick Derringer on Johnny Winter